________________
JULY, 1982
Now, by faith carried over from past lives In rewarding proof that right faith survives, The mourner is led on a pilgrimage
To the nearby shrine of a Jaina image. "A bow to Ye, Ye Soul Wayshower.
By grace, show ye the soul to this humble mourner." Upturned palms of devotion,
Stern hours of Jaina study and non-violent dedication -Fruit thereof, the mourner's vision of blissful infinity That is the pure viewpoint of soul identity.
Soul identity, by way of the blessed benefaction Of the truth of the righteous Jaina religion, Truth in the essence of all spiritual wisdom That body is bondage and soul is freedom. Ignorant soul, in material infatuation,
By free choice had quit its immaterial perfection.
Yet by free choice of non-violence, restraint and penance
The soul may return to its primal radiance -The pure, individual and eternal identity That is the Jaina soul reality."
Good karma bears fruit, the mourner is free From the fragmented half-truth that life is misery, For now the mourner beholds the goal
Of reunion with the self's own blissful soul.
"My Beloved, let us dearly wish
That our coming lives shall dearly cherish The truth and harmlessness of the Jaina religion That shall lead us from body bondage to soul freedom." ...O praise the Faith, that as a soul its earth-body is leaving Right Faith in the Jaina religion heals the rift of grieving.
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