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REDEMPTION.
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Like Mahavira, Buddha, and all other saviours and saints, he conceived it the one purpose of his life to dispel the darkness of ignorance by flooding the world with Light,—to exorcise the demon of superstition by the Word of Power, the Gospel of Faith. People paid little heed, however, to what he said, but were guided by what he performed. There was not room enough for goodness in their hearts, and the seed which would have yielded a harvest a thirty-, a sixty-, or a hundred-foid, had it been sown on good soil, fell by the wayside, or on stony ground, and failed to fructify. The Saviour's doctrine fell unheeded on the ears of his congregation, who cared nothing for philosophy but were ready and anxious to worship the man who healed the sick, revived the dead, and performed other miracles. Ever since the commencement of the Panchama Kala, which began about 2,500 years ago, the idea of securing salvation through the virtue of some one else has become worldwide. To work out one's own salvation, by one's own exertion, leaves no time for the worship of Mammon, and it is certainly convenient to believe that through some one else's grace, to be secured by flattery or hollow praise, the same object can be achieved with ease. The doctrine of salvation by 'blind-worship' gave rise to this wrong notion. The doctrine is perfectly sound in itself, but the error lies in its interpretation. Salvation is possible by this method, only when worship becomes the sole purpose of the devotee's life, when, like Mejnun (the hero of an oriental love story), he banishes from his heart all else but the image of the beloved ‘Leila' (the heroine in the said story), that is to say, when he
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