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RE-INCARNATION.
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in the region of Life allowed them but an occasional peep behind the veil, but the true bliss of the blessedness of being, which may be experienced in nirvana, has been declared to be beyond description ; for bliss is a kind of feeling and no human language is designed to actually describe feelings.
Which, then, is more practical--the realization of happiness by following the great Tirthamkaras who have attained it Themselves, or the pursuit of means which are, by their very nature, incapable of leading to the ideal in view ? The practical wisdom of the worldly wise is clearly impracticable here, for it busies itself with the pursuit of means which lead in a direction opposite to that in which lies the ideal dear to every heart. It is the stupid opinions of a handful of ignorant men which are leading us into error in ignorance of our true ideal. Just determine to attain this ideal with half as much strength of will as you put into your business, and see if its realization is outside the pale of practicability, or more practical than the realization of your worldly ideals, money, fame, and the like. When you sincerely apply yourself to the realization of the true ideal, you will discover that all the impracticability that seems to surround it lies only in the muddled heads of your ignorant counsellors, and, in no way, in the ideal itself.
The practical value of religion is to be judged not from the side of a theoretical speculation of what its adoption leads men to give up, but in terms of the actual increase of power, knowledge and bliss which it brings to the soul. As repeatedly pointed out ere this, the
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