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TEACHINGS
95 Sūtrakstāvga, II, 1. 2, 3, 4: There is a lotus-pool containing much water and mud, very full and complete, answering to the idea one has of a lotuspool, full of white lotuses, delightful, conspicuous, magnificent, and splendid. And everywhere all over the lotus-pool there grew many white lotuses, the best Nymphaeds,. . . in beautiful array, tall, brilliant, of fine colour, smell, taste, and touch. And in the very middle of this lotus-pool there grew one big white lotus, the best of Nymphaeds.'
7 General view.-According to Mahāvīra, the four precepts and self-privation are the recognized roads to the blissful state of the soul. The soulsubstance is not a single all-pervading reality without a second of its kind. The soul has no beginning or end. So long it has to go round and round through the cycle of births and deaths, it has a form. If the soul is to have a form by virtue of its own, then it cannot but be dull in sentient matter devoid of all consciousness and intelligence. If it be absolutely formless, then by the virtue of its being free from all activities, bondage, and freedom would become incompatible with its own nature, and samsāra, too, would be impossible. Mahāvīra laid a great stress on the activity of souls. The individual soul has innumerable units of space. The soul is uncreated and possessed of
