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FOREWORD
It affords me immense pleasure in complying with the request of Pandit Shri Srichand Chorariya that I should write a foreword to his interesting and valuable study of Yoga-Kosa (Cyclopaedia of Yoga). It goes without saying that the work represents the doctrines of Yogas'astra in Jaina religion. It is unquestionably a welcome idea on which Shri Chorariya is so high an authority.
Shri Chorariya is an acknowledged and well-reputated scholar in Jainism, and has devoted most of his research time in collecting materials for his Cyclopaedias under the guidence of Late Mohanlal He has compiled so far the Cyclopaedias of Mahavira (Vardhmana-Jivana-Kosa) in three volumes, and of the Lesya, Kriya and Yoga-Kosas. In all his Cyclopaedias he has collected the materials from the Jaina texts on the topics he is describing.
Banthia.
Mahavira-Jivana-Kosa contains all items on the life and activities of Mahavira as reflected in the Jaina Agamas and other texts. It is a monumental work and every bit of information is authenticated by referring to the sources. This book is a unique contribution to the scholarly world of Jainistic studies. The conception of compiling a dictionary on the life and teachings of Lord Mahavira is itself a new one, and at the same time it is very useful for the handy reference to the source material on Mahavira's life-story. The author has ransacked both the s'vetambara and Digambara sources.
In a similar way, the Lesya and the Kriya-Kosas are two philosophical treatises which have surpassed all his predecessors on the subject and which have acclaimed lots of laurels for him.
This
Latest in the series is the Yoga-Kosa which contains all the references to the Yoga-Sastra found in the Jaina literature. Yoga-Kosa will also tell us how to do research on a particular topic of Jainism. R. L. William's Jaina-Yoga (London, 1962) is a book on the study of sravakacara, but Chorariya's book is a Cyclopaedia on the Jaina Yoga, and naturally the latter will be more exhaustive than the former.
The Mithyatvi Ka Adhyatmik Vikasa of Chorariaji is a philosophical treatise which describes carefully the manifestation of scul
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