________________
480
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
man was the result of a longing for sensual enjoyment on the part of the typical man-Adam. Man, it will be remembered, was not punished because he had violated some arbitrary and whimsical command of an Almighty Ruler of the world, but the punishment had come because it was the necessary consequence of a desire for knowledge of good and evil. God, in his infinite goodness, had, so to speak, pointed out the fatal result of the transgression beforehand, but his friendly counsel was not heeded when the temptation came. Death was pointed out as the inevitable penalty for a thirst for the knowledge of good and evil, for it was said, 'in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt surely die.' Without going twice over the ground already covered in our earlier chapter, it is sufficient to say that the fall of Adam contains the sublimest secrets and teachings of inestimable value for mankind. It is a warning against a purely sensual existence; for, while the development of the faculty of discrimination is necessary and desirable, it is nothing short of downright madness to employ it. solely to determine the values of objects with respect to the amount of pleasure they are likely to afford to the senses. By making the power of discrimination to pander to sense-gratification we deprive ourselves of wisdom, which results from its proper employment. The man who aspires to attain immortality must devote himself unreservedly to the God within; he must deny all other claims on his attention. He should perceive only one reality in all phenomena, and understand and realize the force of the statement, "I and my father are one;" for the Upanishad teaches:
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org