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exertion of will. It is, however, evident from the nature of the process and the causes of bondage that will alone can bring about the freedom of the soul. No outside agency can, therefore, do anything for him who is not prepared to save himself. The function of the Siddhatmans in Jainism is, therefore, confined to the imparting of instruction, which They have left behind in the shape of Scriptures.
*
How the karma of one life affects the soul in a sub
RE-INCARNATION.
* Anxious as we are to acknowledge merit wherever it might exist, it would not have pained us at all to recognize the founders of other creeds also as true Teachers of mankind. But when after giving the fullest possible credit to the accounts of their lives as contained in their own books, we find that not one of them attained moksha in its true sense, the very idea of which was unknown to a majority of them, there is no alternative but to say that the true Teachers of humanity are only the twenty-four Tirthamkaras of Jainism, since he alone can be a teacher who combines in himself perfect knowledge, resulting from omniscience, and practical experience as the Conqueror. The founders of other religions, in so far as they teach the elementary principles of religion, are at best like the staff of a modern high school who are not intended to impart instruction in the more advanced course of education necessary for those determined to pursue their studies in a higher sphere of thought. Mahomed was a seer,' or prophet, Jesus a great yogi, Buddha the world-famous head of an order of monks, Kabir a mystic Bhakta, the great Shankaracharya a monument of learning, and so forth. None of them crossed the samsara, or attained to omniscience. Their writings are good and useful, as an elementary course of training, but not free from confusion of thought, nor from misdirection which none can afford to follow with closed eyes. He who wishes to avoid the pain of births and deaths in the world and the torments of hell, after death, must, therefore, turn to the only true source, and sit at the feet of the perfect Teachers, the Tirthamkaras.
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