Sramana Bhagavan Mahavira Life & Doctrine

Preface

Professor K. C. Lalwani, a social Scientist with specialisation in Econmics was born in 1921 and took his Master's Degree with a first class from the University of Calcutta in 1943. He taught Economics and commerce at Calcutta Poona and Delhi, before joining the Indian Institute of Techology at Kharagpura in West Bengal in 1954. He published many books and innumerable papers in Economics, Commerce, Political Science, Religion, Historiography, Educational Sociology and contemporary United States. In 1960-61, he went to the United States on a one-year assignment and addressed Seminars at several Universities and attended & Participated in professional gatherings. He travelled widely in the United States and six countries of Western Europe. Around 1967, he entered into another new field, Jainology, where in he published several vol­umes. He translated in English: UTTARADHYAYANA SUTRA, BHAGAVATI SUTRA, VOL., 1-4, DASAVAIKALIKA SUTRA, KALPA SUTRA, AUPAPATIKA SUTRA. His work on Bhagawati Sutra was hailed by prof. Sunk Kumar Chatterjee as his magnum opus. His treatise JAIN STORIES has proved very popular with English reading public.

There are very few amongst us who have the courage to live by their convictions and to be what their inward essences urge them to be. In Dasasutraskandha, Chapter Ten, human beings are ethically graded in as much as some do not even listen to the Jaina scriptures, some listen to them but do not develop faith in them, some develop faith in them but do not act in conformity with them, and only some, very few in number though, develop faith in them and also act in conformity with them. K.C. Lalwani is one of those who can be easily regarded as a man who possessed the RIGHT FAITH AND RIGHT CONDUCT, had the heart to selflessly cater the 'gems' of Jainism for the benefit of all and above all also had the requisite scholarship coupled with literary ability to express what ever he understood, in a simple and authentic way. His present Book contains, besides the life - sketch of Lord Mahavira, insightful discussions of various topics on Jaina epistemology, logic, ethics, Religion and Science, including Biology, Physics and Jaina concepts of Space and Time. It has been reviewed in the United States as the best work on subject.