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truths to be incorporated. Hence, Jainism insists on full blaze of intellect being turned on the problems of Life. Jainism requires the employment of intellect to understand and appreciate its teaching. It is not that where the intellect is not fully developed, its teaching may not be of help to the soul, if sincerely put into practice, but that exact and scientific knowledge is necessary for speedy progress, since religious truths are at once converted into beliefs the moment they are verified by the intellect. Jainism, then, is the Path of Liberation par excellence.
The lives of the great Tirthankaras furnish ample proof of the practicability of Religion, and show the heights of greatness and glory to which a soul, conscious of its own nature, may aspire. Every detail of their noble lives illustrates the supremacy of Religion over materialism, and invites us to follow the path They trod, to reach the heights which They attained. The path may be steep and thorny, but it has to be trodden, if not now, then, in some future incarnation, and each backward step, or fall from our present position, only goes to make the journey to be performed, more tedious and tiresome. Let us, then, gird up our loins to tread the path of the Tirthankaras.
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