________________
( 8 )
whether a worm, or an ant, or a rose, or a nightingale. or a horse, or a man. It is capable of seeing and knowing all; it desires happiness and avoids pain.
Jainism exposes the hallowness of death, Jainism marks the mockery of death's vanity and makes a brave assertion of the glory of life. It reminds me of what Robert Browning at his death-bed said:
"Death! Death! It is this harping on death I despise so n uch-his idle and of en cowradly as well as ignorant harping! ........Without death, there could be no prolongation of that which we call life. It is foolish to argue upon such a thing even. For myself, I deny death as an end of everything. Never say of me that I am dead. It is merely a crapelike churchyardy word for change, for growth "
Like many other great spirits, he was given the death that he had merited, and he met it like a friend. In Prospice he says:
"I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forbore,
And made me creep past;
No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my
peers,
The heroes of old
Bear the brunt............!'
