________________
274
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
the impurities attaching to the soul, which, consequently, immediately drag it into a new 'womb', in subjection to chemical affinities and magnetic forces of nature. The liability to birth and death is only destroyed at the moment of entering nirvana whence there is no return.
When the soul is fully evolved out into perfection, its delusions come to an end ; and the destruction of the karmic force, the cause of its transmigration, being effected, it is put beyond the snares of re-incarnation for over. It then enjoys sleepless bliss and immortality. Hence, Luke (XX. 36) has it : "Neither can they die any more," which is capable of sound sense only on the hypothesis of re-incarnation, and means the escape of the soul from the cycle of births and deaths.†
The Sons of God, thus, are those pure and perfect Souls who have attained their high Ideal, and become God. They have destroyed the bondage of their karmas and the consequent liability to births and deaths, and are now living at the top of the universe as the Conquerors of the Dragon of Ignorance and its chief ally-Death. They are called the Sons of God, because they are, so to speak, heir to the heritage of divinity, having attained the perfection of God, which is the goal of evolution. Pure, perfect happiness, i.e., eternal, unabating bliss, the power to defy Death, i.e., immortality, omnipotence, infinite knowledge and infinite perception, called the
* Sleep being inconsistent with the nature of consciousness, God, who is pure consciousness, must necessarily be free from the stupor and stupefaction of insensibility and somnolence.
Cf. “From death to death goes he who perceives diversity " (Katha Upanishad, IV. 10).
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org