Acharya Mahaprajna
Mahavira, Marx, Keynes and Gandhi - all of them were farsighted Personalities. They could think beyond their vision. To be far-sighted is a great achievement, also a big virtue. It has been said in Upanishads: "What will happen tomorrow? Why see this? If you have to see what will happen after hundred years, see far beyond." All those who have been great people were endowed with vision - they were far-sighted. They inspire us even today.
In this context, we often forget that as long as a rigidly stringent system exists, vision cannot blossom. The problem of how to change living conditions of man calls for far-sightedness. We must examine how man's emotions can be changed, how his attitudes can be changed; how can man be made more righteous.
Mahavira did a considerable amount of thinking. Gandhi also did the same. If Mahavira did the thinking, then why was change not achieved, is a question. Whether or not the reform was achieved as a result of the thinking of Mahavira, Mahavira did a great deal of rethinking. He prescribed several effective solutions but it was not for him to administer the dosage. Mahavira said that resources were needed but he also said that their dispossession was equally essential. Similarly, one may consider that some violence is unavoidable, but non-violence is also an imperative. If possession is essential, dispossession is also essential. Mahavira deliberated on all these. From this point of view, one could say that great personalities understood the problems of their respective times according to their own perspectives and have provided solutions for them.
