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beautiful temples over it, beautiful and costly as fairy palaces, and he takes it round the city in gorgeous processions, on golden cars, followed by crowds of singing women in gay-coloured, goldglittering sarees : still he knows that his god dwells high beyond all this, and that all this Bhakti, or pious service, is nothing but an expression of his own admiration for his chosen ideal, and a kind of expedient to bring it closer before his eyes and the eyes of the world, both of whom are pretty well in need of it.
Jinahood shares the quality of all ideals, to be, in spite ofor perhaps just on account of-its undiminished and undiminishable attractiveness-high above the bodily and mental standards of his admires and imitators. And even Jaina-monkhood, its reflection on the rough mirror of actual life, is high above the standards of average man, and will-owing to the diversity of human dispositions,- always remain restricted to a few privileged individuals, wanderers as it were on the heights of humanity. Since the institution of monkhood, and all the other institutions of Jainism, presuppose the world as it really is, and humanity as it really is, the Scriptures do not account for the question as to what would become of the universe, if all people would turn monks. Therefore, it will always remain undecided whether that venerable Muni was right, who replied to the idle questioner that in such a case the good Karmas of mankind would cause wish-trees to grow, and streams of Amsta to flow, and gods to descend from their celestical abodes to serve their feet.
But even if it is not possible for every body perfectly to come up to that ideal, still, merely acknowledging it to be an ideal, and trying to cultivate as many of its virtues as one's constitution allows, even thus much is considered to be a step towards advancement.
This is, expressed just in a few words, what I think to be the innermost secret of Jainism, and what is, at the same time, a
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| SR No. | 001653 |
| Book Title | Heritage of the Last Arhat Mahavira |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Charlotte Krause |
| Publisher | Parshwanath Vidyapith |
| Publication Year | |
| Total Pages | 32 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Religion, & Devotion |
| File Size | 3 MB |