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CHAPTER 26
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Looking over the results attained in the preceding pages of this book, we may say that Jainism is a system of religion entirely rational, logical, scientific and selfcontained. It is characterized by practicability which is the hallmark of all true Sciences, and is able at once to explain all the hidden mysteries of human thought contained in the diverse Scriptures of the world. Ritualistic observance as well as inner experience are all controlled by the rationalism of scientific thought. The teaching of the omniscient l'irthamkaras, no doubt, covers a vaster ground than can be reached by the intellect, but within the field of the intellect itself everything is intelligible and intellectually conceivable.
I once heard a lady speaker who claimed that religion as a matter of inner experience, and who asserted that one day Christ came into her bed-room and stood at the foot of her bed. The good woman, however, never stopped to consider whether Gods or World-Redeemers had nothing better to do than to visit people in their bed-rooms, or to stand at the foot of their beds. It would probably be news to, her to know that an inner experience like the one she had and on which she pinned her conviction could be obtained by merely devoting the mind to an idea, which would enable it to be visualized with the greatest ease. What is needed is the dedicating of the mind to an idea. If
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