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

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within our power to rise to the highest heights of power and glory. Their noble Lives
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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
......remind us we can make our lives sublime; And, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of
time;
Footprints that perhaps another, sailing o'er Life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, secing, shall take heart again."
demns fetish-worship-the cult of rivers, stones and the like-as well as devotion to human or super-human beings who have not eradicated theirlower nature, that is to say who are liable to be swayed by passion and by personal likes and dislikes. What, then, is the significance of the image-worship which takes place daily in our temples and which is undoubtedly the cause of the false impression that has been formed by the non-Jainas concerning our faith?
To explain the nature of this worship, it is necessary first of all to summarise the Jaina creed which fully accounts for it. The Jainas believe that every soul is godly by nature and endowed with all those attributes of perfection which are associated with our truest and best conceptions of divinity. These divine attributesomniscience, blissfulness and the like-arc, however, not actually manifest in the case of the soul that is involved in transmigration, but will become so when it attains nirvana.
Nirvana implies complete freedom from all those impurities of sin which limit and curtail the natural attributes and properties of the soul. Accordingly, the Jainas aspire to become Gods by crossing the sea of samsara (births and deaths), and the creed they follow to obtain that devoutly-wished-for consummation is the method which was followed by those who have already reached the goal in view-nirvana. It is this method which is known as Jainism, and the images that are installed in our temples are the statues or photos of the greatest among those who have already reached nirvana and taught others the way to get there. They are called Tirthamkarus, literally the makers or founders of a tirtha, a fordable channel or passage (across the ocean of births and deaths).
How did They cross the sea of samsara themselves? By curbing their fleshly lusts and by purifying and perfecting their souls. We,