________________
CHAPTER 6
THE HAPPINESS OF GODS
The Jaina idea of real happiness is this, that the natural condition of the Soul-substance is blissful in itself, so that if the soul rere left to itself and were completely rid of the crippling companionship of matter, it will enjoy eternal unabating, unabated, unending and unendable happiness. Those Perfect Ones who have attained to Nirvana are not living and enjoying unbounded happiness. Sensual pleasure with which we are familiar is an undesirable and cheap substitute for the real happiness which is our birthright.
The Christian views on the subject will appear from the following quotations:
" Be it according to thy faith.'-(Matt. ix. 29.) And where faith is, there is the promise; and the consummation of the promise 18 rest. So that in illumination what we receive 18 knowledge, and the end of knowledge is rest-the last thing conceived as the object of aspiration. As then, inexperience comes to an end by experience, and perplexity by finding & clear outlet, 60 by llumination must darkness disappear. The darkness is ignorance, through which te fall into sins, purblind as to the truth,” (Clement) A.N.C.L. vol. iv. p. 134.
“Thou art too dainty, Christian, if thou wouldst have pleasure in this life as well as in the next; nay, & fool thou art, if thou thinkest this life's pleasures to be really pleasures. The philosophers, for instance, give the name of pleasure to quietness and repose; in that they have their bliss; in that they find entertainment; they even glory in it. You long for the goal, and the stage, and the dust, and
46
