Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 733

712
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
any number of souls may attain to, though no particular individual has an exclusive right to that high and sublime status. The popular fallacy in this respect lies in the personification of a status as a being, and in confounding the ideal with the individuals who bring it into realization.
The above is well expressed in the Bible, in the memorable words of John, the divine, as one seated on the throne from which proceed thunder and lightnings, * and which is surrounded by four and twenty seats on which sit the twenty-four Elders all robed in white and wearing crowns of gold. This represents the sublime status of the twenty-four Tirthamkaras in whom the one Living Essence is most fully and perfectly manifested. It is the idea of the 'One in the Twenty-four.' Then follows that of the Twenty-four in the One,' which is described as follows :
"When those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
The four beastst with eyesi in both directions are the
* Thunder and lightnings signify the explosive nature of life.
t of the four beasts alluded to here, the lion and the eagle point at once to their respective types, since the lion walks on earth, and, therefore, represents the earth-bodied jivas, while the eagle flies in the air and thus points to the air-bodied. Of the remaining two, the one with the face of a man is typical of the super-human type, - devas, or angels, whose bodies are popularly supposed to be made of the element of fire on account of their phosphorescent splendour. This leaves the calf to be explained. Now, the calf is not only the young of the cow, but, also, of themarine mammalia, e.g., the whale (Imperial Dictionary); hence, it is typical of the water-bodied creatures,
I The metaphor of eyes' is also to be found in the Hindu