Virchand Raghavji Gandhi (1864-1901) had many firsts to his credit. He was the first celebrated Jaina to have graduated with honours from Elphinstone College, Bombay (Mumbai) in 1880, the first authorized Jaina plenipotentiary to a global religious conclave in 1893 , the first to win admirers and adherents to his faith outside India, and the first non-Hindu to defend Hinduism in America and Europe. He was much ahead of his times and explained the fundamental articles of the Jaina faith in the living language of science and logic. His interpretation of Anekantavada –the philosophy which says that each ssertion though seemingly contradictory, belongs to the domain of possibility - brought the quintessential element of Jaina metaphysics to the global fora.
He could juxtapose, assimilate, and harmonise different religious standpoints on the praxis of deeper spirituality. His explanation of the gospel of Ahimsa - non-violence -in scientific idiom, appealed alike to the intellect, the heart and the soul, and in that respect, he was a precursor to Mahatma Gandhi(1869-1948).
He was among the first few 19th century Indians to delineate the exploitative aspects of the British Raj marked by racial discrimination, destruction of Indian agriculture and handicraft industries, impoverishment of the subaltern classes, misuse and drainage of India’s wealth to Britain, and the abolition of import duties to help the traders of Liverpool and Manchester. He spoke against the imposition of 200% tax on the manufacture of salt ‘to maintain a costly government’, a somber presage of the Salt Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi in 1930. He had the courage to point out that the British Raj had legitimized the vice of drinking and raised revenue from the liquor trade, which the native rulers never did.
He resented that the government spent lavishly to assert its political hegemony by declaring Queen Victoria as the Empress of India in 1877, but it did little to save more than five million people from starvation and epidemics during the famine of 1896-97. He described Englishmen as conquerors who laid claim to ‘extra-territorial right throughout India.’
Yet his patriotism was not insular as he stood for amity and cooperation among different nations at cultural and economic levels. Despite his reservations about the ethical dimensions of the British export, he praised the British manufacturers for understanding the Indian economic milieu and the requirements of people. He was the first Jaina to speak on trade relations between India and America and to guide the latter on what to export at an international meet organized by W.P.Wilson, Director of Philadelphia Commercial Museum.1
Born on August 25, 1864 in an affluent Jaina family of Mahuva, a small town on the Arabian sea coast, and educated at Bhavnagar (Gujarat) and in Bombay (Mumbai), Virchand Raghavji Gandhi became the youngest Honorary Secretary of Shri Jaina Association of India at the age of twenty one, due to his keen interest and involvement in the administration of charitable and religious trusts. A towering intellectual, visionary, orator , writer, and social reformer, he was a polyglot who knew fourteen languages and was conversant both with rational western thought and traditional Indian wisdom. He knew as much about Jainism in which he had been trained in a Jaina monastery by Shrimad Vijayanandsurishwar (Muni Atmarama ji) whom he represented at the Chicago Parliament, as with the fundamentals of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. He was well versed in history, philosophy, psychology, science and mysticism, and quoted profusely from scholarly works. He could address large audiences with rare confidence and speak sometime for hours elaborating on a subject.
Just as Swami Vivekananda founded the Vedanta Society of New York and Anagarika Dharmapala, the Maha Bodhi Society of America, Virchand Raghavji Gandhi founded three institutions in America - Gandhi Philosophical Society, School of Oriental Philosophy, and Society for the Education of women of India.
Virchand Raghavji Gandhi synergized in him, the erudition of Protap Chunder Mozoomdar ( 1840-1905), the sobriety of Hewavitarne Dharmapala (1864-1933), the philosophic outlook of G.N. Chakravarti, the sensitivity of Balwant Bhau Nagarkar (1858-1926) and the patriotic zeal and prophetic vision of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) - all of whom represented their respective faiths at the World’s first Parliament of Religions held at Chicago in 1893.
AT PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
Virchand Raghavji Gandhi created a great impression on the Chicago Parliament by his refined manners, vast learning, and command of the English language. Although, in physical appearance, he was not as handsome as Swami Vivekananda, his tranquil and austere figure in an immaculate Kurta – upper garment - white shawl -over the shoulders and traditional turban with golden border, his friendly disposition and gentle smile attracted one and all. His opening and closing addresses (September 11 and 27) presentation on Jainism (September 25) as well as his off-the-cuff observations during discussions, were greatly appreciated.2 He delineated the intricate philosophical points through metaphors, narratives, fables and quotes.
In interactive and representational argument he was no less eloquent in the Parliament than Swami Vivekananda, Hewavitarne Dharmapala, Balwant Bhau Nagarkar or Narsimhachari, but he never used raw rhetoric to overawe his opponent. While presenting counterview or censuring the illiberal, he did not cross the limits of decency, and thereby won the respect of all. The American Press lauded his simplicity, scholarship, non-sectarian outlook and breadth of vision. The Boston Evening Transcript dated September 30, 1893, wrote : ‘He has a refined and intellectual countenance, a bright eye and something in his manner that suggests cosmopolitan influences.’
When evangelist George T. Pentecost of London concluded his address on September 24,1893 by saying that ‘there were two or three oriental bubbles which have been floating over Chicago for the last two or three weeks’3 alluding to Swami Vivekananda, H. Dharmapala, Narsimhachari and other delegates from India, it was Virchand Raghavji Gandhi who gave a befitting reply. ‘The oriental bubbles might yet be found heavier than certain bloated balloons of self conceit which were temporarily obscuring a large portion of the horizon.’ 4 The Chicago Daily Tribune dated September 26, 1893 reported that the audience was sympathetic, and ‘applauded loudly almost every point he scored.’
EXPONENT OF JAINISM
Jainism is an outlook of life, a mode of understanding the world, a way to the efflorescence of the soul, as well as a living faith. In its classical mould, the word ‘Jaina’ is more of an adjective than a noun, as it derives from the word jina which means he who has conquered himself.
The history of Jainism goes back to the beginning of time. Its historical evolution, like that of other faiths, has been the result of interaction between a number of factors, forces, ideas and puissant souls, sometime between parallel or even rival schools of thought. Jainism is neither the heir or the rebel child of Hinduism as Christianity is of Judaism, nor a reactionary religious movement.
The Supreme Truths in the Jaina faith were revealed to the twenty-four tirthankaras - ‘ford-finders’ - those who help one to cross the ocean of worldly existence’ - at different stages of man’s evolution. Deriving from the Shramana ('self reliant') tradition which is many millennia old, Jainism focuses on the purification, elevation and flowering of the human being - an idea which is close to the Mundaka Upanishad(I.1.5), which says that true knowledge comes not through pedagogy but through experience.
While Hermann Jacobi (788-820 CE) introduced Jainism to the West through his translation of a few Jaina classical texts both into German and English, Virchand Raghavji Gandhi may be called the first able exponent of Jainism in America and Europe, who spread its aroma through his insightful talks, discourses and writings. He presented Jainism as an ethico-metaphysical system which lays down that moral power is superior to physical power; renunciation is not escapism but the way to infinite purity and infinite bliss; self-sacrifice is better than self aggrandizement. He believed that Jainism is fit to be a world religion because it stands for spirituality and culture not dogma. Jaina ethics aim at the cultivation of the mind, the heart and the soul along the lines of truth, non-violence and righteousness, so as to turn hatred into love, love into compassion and compassion into social service.
The three jewels of Jainism, Tri-ratna, namely, Right faith (samyaka shraddha), Right knowledge (Samyaka Jnana) and Right conduct (Samyaka Acharna), underline the need for the establishment of the moral law in society. Jainism rejects the atheistic and materialistic perceptions of the Charvaka school of Indian philosophy since it believes that the goal of human life is not to attain pleasure but to be perfect in every respect.
At the Chicago Parliament ( September 11) he described Jainism as a faith ‘older than Buddhism, similar to it in ethics but different from it in psychology.’ 5 His paper on Jaina philosophy and ethics (September 25) delineated the cosmology, canon, science, logic, epistemology and moral codes of Jainism in a masterly way. 6 He put forth two parallel but distinct views in the Jaina tradition namely, Dravyarthik naya which holds that the universe is without beginning and end, and Paryarthika naya which holds that creation and destruction take place every moment.
He divided the Jaina canon into two parts - Shruti dharma, revealed laws, and Charitra dharma, moral laws, which elevate character. He referred to the nature of nine principles, six substances, six kinds of living beings and four states of existence in the Jaina philosophy, explaining some of them in detail. He described the soul as the divine element in all beings – the element which knows, thinks and feels, but is different from matter which is also eternal. As long as the soul is subject to transmigration, it undergoes the process of evolution and involution. Moksha, the state of final liberation, is achieved when the soul regains its purest form by relieving itself of the burden of karma and severing all connection with matter. The realized ones look upon all living beings as upon themselves.
He explained the Jaina belief in eight types of karma – law of cause and effect - and in the theory of reincarnation, widely supported by philosophers, theologians, and prophets the world over, as it provides the raison d’etre of injustice and misery in the world. He asserted that the Jaina prophets could reveal the minutest divisions of living beings with their inner eye and envision ‘how many organs of sense minutest animalcule has’, much before the discovery of microscope. He informed the audience that there were works on biology, zoology, botany, anatomy and physiology in the Jaina tradition, written centuries before the birth of modern sciences. 7
He rejected the common view upheld about the Jainas as atheists or agnostics. Although the existence of a First cause or that of a creator-deity is absent in the Jaina cosmological scheme, the Tirthankaras recognize the subtle essence underlying all substances, ‘conscious as well as unconscious, which becomes an eternal cause of all modifications and is termed God.’ While the Brahmins recommend devotion (bhakti) and action (karma), and the Vedantists emphasise the path of knowledge (jnana) to reach the Ultimate Reality, Jainism teaches that ‘ knowledge and religious observances’ are the means to obtain the highest happiness.
In conclusion, he spoke of the panchamahavrata or five great vows of ascetics, namely, ‘not to kill; not to lie; not to take that which is not given; to abstain from sexual intercourse; to renounce all interest in worldly things or to call nothing one’s own.’8 These vows which bear verisimilitude to the five Yamas- restraints- in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, are regarded by the Jainas as means to attain the Supreme spiritual state of a Siddha Parameshthin.
In his final address( September 27), Virchand Raghavji Gandhi thanked the organizers of the Parliament for their hospitality, kindness, ‘liberal spirit and patience’ with which they heard the views of delegates from the orient. However, in view of occasional notes of disharmony, Christian claims to superiority over other religions, and some direct attacks on Hinduism and Buddhism, he observed: ‘ If you will only permit a heathen to deliver his message of peace and love I shall only ask you to look at the multifarious ideas presented to you in a liberal spirit and not with superstition and bigotry, as the seven blind men did in the elephant story.’ 9
As per the said story the blind men had touched the different parts of an elephant’s body and quarreled among themselves about its shape, size and features. He thus tried to establish that truth has various dimensions; religions are divided by ignorance and bigotry, and the good in all faiths need to be recognized.
JAINA CONTRIBUTION
After the Chicago Parliament , Virchand Raghavji Gandhi went on lecture tour in different parts of America and England on invitation, visiting India in between. In his various discourses and writings, he explained how Jainism has enriched various disciplines like philosophy, religion, literature and arts.
The Jaina contribution to the domain of metaphysics includes its concept of the self existent and timeless Reality; its bheda-abheda doctrine which recognizes both different (bheda) and identical (abheda) perspectives, its nine categories namely, jiva, living being or soul; ajiva, non-living being; punya, good deeds, papa, evil deeds; ashrava, influx of karma, bandha, bondage of karma, samvara, stoppage of inflow of karma; nirjara, eradication of karmic matter, and moksha, salvation; its six-fold division of dravyas, substances, namely jiva, soul, pudgala, matter, dharma, principle of motion, adharma, principle of rest, akasha, space ( together called panchastikaya) and kala, time; its four-fold division of souls– deva, gods, jivas, living beings, tiryaks, lower animals and the vegetable kingdom and narakas, lower regions – all subject to the law of karma, and so on.
The atomic theory of Jainism which propounds that an atom (paramanu) is indivisible and indestructible and has colour, flavor and taste; that the aggregate of atoms (skandha) in various modes and combinations changes the quality and taxonomy of objects, comes closer to the scientific view.
The Jaina theory of five kinds of knowledge namely, mati, ordinary cognition, shruti, testimony, avadhi, inner perception, manahparyaya, capability to read the mind of others, and kevala or pratyaksha jnana, perfect or direct knowledge, adds a new dimension to Epistemology.
The seven modes of predication (saptabhangi), called also seven nayas or standpoints – syad asti (perhaps is), syad nasti (perhaps is not), syad asti-nasti (perhaps is and is not), syad avaktavya ( perhaps inexpressible), syad asti avaktavya (perhaps is and is inexpressible), syad nasty avaktavya (perhaps is not and is inexpressible), syad asti-nasti avaktavya (perhaps, is not and is inexpressible), have contributed to the study of Logic.
The Jaina view of nonviolence as the highest ideal of life is a great contribution to Ethics. Its concept of Moksha as a state of freedom which renders infinite joy, infinite freedom, and infinite bliss adds to the theology of salvation. The rejection of dogma in Jainism and the acceptance of different points of view are the salient features of Jaina ethos.
Jaina art as seen through its iconography, sculptures, paintings, stupas – hemispherical structures - decorated manuscripts, mystic diagrams, and temples is aesthetic, meaningful, majestic and magnificent. Jainas have produced vast literature on philosophy, logic, history, comparative religion, grammar, prosody, mathematics, lexicography, astronomy, art and other subjects in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Prakrit.