A STUDENT’S NOTE-BOOK

 

A STUDENT’S NOTE-BOOK

A Student’s Note-book is a compilation of fragments from the personal note-books of Hon’ble Jagmanderlal Jain M.A.(Oxon), M.R.A.S. Brought out as A Study of an Indian Mind, they cover the period from August 1900 to January 14^TH 1920.

In “AN INTRODUCTION TO JAIN PHILOSOPHY ‘dated April 27, 1927, Mr. J. L. Jaini says: “The Jain doctrine is that the lifeless, non-living, unconscious Universe is eternal and un-created , and it evolves and evolves within its own countless attributes and modifications for ever, and that it undergoes even radical, catastrophic changes in Space and Time, which the History of all Nations records as the Deluge, the Mahabharata, the Great War,  the Pralaya, etc., etc., etc. Is this doctrine not more soul-satisfying, simple and stamped with cogency and Truth than an attempt to explain things by the doctrine of creation?  Creation thus being only the creation of its Perfect condition by the Pure Soul, it is easy to see that all else in the universe, from the point of view of conscious, living, knowing Soul, is Imperfect.”

             In the Foreword to the book, the compiler M. Amy Thornett, observes: the task of pleasure and pain in selecting these extracts and original parts from my friend’s  Note-books since his boyhood, was undertaken in the belief that it is quite time the West should be better acquainted than it is with the mind of the East.

            All the fragments given in this book are deeply aphoristic, full of intellectual brilliance and spiritual wisdom. Here are some representative specimens from the very first two pages of the book:

Allahabad. August 1900. From F. Harrison’s Choice of Books.

P.21. “The booklover must know that man’s business here is to know for the sake of living, and not live for the sake of knowing.“

            The first canon of a sound education is to make it the instrument to perfect the whole nature and character…. All opportunity for education…should be always more or less symmetrical and balanced, appealing equally to imagination, memory, reflection; and so, having something to give us in poetry, in history, in science, and in philosophy.           

            P.22. A wise education should have no great type of thought, no dominant phase of human nature, wholly a blank.

            P.23. A useful maxim: If our reading be utterly closed to the great poems of the world, there is something amiss with our reading. (We should know all great writers of all nations, and of all ages.)

            P.26. The books of art, fancy and ideals reflect the delight and aroma of life.

September 3^rd.

Ibid. p.293. They to whom it is easy to whatever they long to possess are seldom those to whom Beauty has uttered her deepest word.

            p.298. Art will be beautiful, when life (thought, manner, works is beautiful, and assuredly not till then. Art is consistent only with the congenial presence of strength, simplicity and peace.

            October 3^rd, 1900.

            Schlegel quoted by Hudson in his vol. i of Shakespeare’s Art, etc. p. 136.

“Man can never altogether turn aside his thoughts from infinity, and some obscure recollections will always remind him of the home he has lost.”

Also, he calls the Greek religion and love of Beauty, etc., “refined and ennobled sensuality.”

HUDSON, vol. i. Shakespeare.

In Shakespeare’s biography there is enough to show  that in all common dealings of life he was eminently gentle, candid, upright and judicious; open-hearted, genial, and sweet in his social intercourses; among his companions and friends full of playful wit and sprightly grace; kind to the faults of others, severe to his own; quick to discern and acknowledge merit in another, modest  and slow of finding it in himself.

Let me conclude with the remarks that this is the sublime style which is maintained throughout the book. The last note dated January 14^th, 1920 reads as follows:

The conviction is borne in upon me that the most universal and practical religion is Beneficence, the creed of Doing Good to others, as distinct from Benevolence, wishing good to others, and Ahimsa, not hurting others.

This came up as a crystal thought this morning when the fog-laden clouds forbade the great god Sol from appearing on his throne of gold and effulgence.

Beneficence, daily and hourly beneficence for all, sums up “Serve All, Love All,” and spells a curbing, almost an eradication of the primitive passions of Anger, Pride, Deceit and Greed.      

  Note: Sole is the personification of the Sun and a god in ancient Roman religion.

                                   

15^th October 2020                                                              G. R. Kanwal