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RE-INCARNATION.
875 the present opportunity which the human birth has thrown in our way, we might not get another chance for a long long time to come. As the Scriptures teachi, dificult it is to obtain the human form ; having obtained it, difficult it is to be born in the best environment for speedy progress; having been born even in the most suitable environment, difficult it is to acquire the truth ; and having acquired it, clifficult it is to put it into practice. Nothing avails when death comes to claim its victim; friends, relations, money, fame, authority, and the like, only go to make the parting all the more sorrowful. Fool, indeed, is he who, having obtained the human birth, squanders away his time in the pursuit of the pleasures of the world, which can never obtain for the soul the bliss which it is hankering after.
Our statement about the advantages of birth in a good family needs a little elucidation. There is a great deal of truth in it, since some men are so placed by the very circumstance of birth that they are saved most of the trouble involved in the practice of renunciation. This will become quite obvious on a comparison of the rules of conduct prevailing in different communities. For instance, he who is born in a family in which flesh and wine are generally taken is at a greater disadvantage than one born where only one of them is indulged in, and the latter is less fortunate than him who takes birth in a household from which both are rigidly excluded, as is the case with the Jainas. Similarly, a man born in a community which possesses the most exact knowledge has decidedly better facilities of speedily acquiring the truth than those of his brethren
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