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31574] SPIRITUAL LIGHT. utility of the worship of these other gods. Ordinary men have not the capacity to distinguish between the Sudeva and the Kudeva. They ought first to be taught the preliminary lessons of religion and after fully mastering them, they can be initiated into the right way of worshipping Sudeva; thus they are led on gradually from lower to higher steps. In the gradual development of soul, the worship of kudevas is assigned a place for the performance of an important function. Some are extremely wanting in the power of discrimination. They receive a training as it were in the worship of Kudeva; gradually as they develop their mental and spiritual faculties, they of their own accord come to see what right Deva means. This is very important from the psychological point of view. Jainism does not inculcate the use of force, but only points to the way by following which, one becomes one's own guide. There is no revolution or an abrupt change from one view point to another, but there is a kind of gradual evolution, brought about in the spirit. This is best illustrated by the well-known Chārusanjivani chāri Naya as stated in Prabandha chintāmani (page 105 ):-Then, on one occasion, Siddharāja who was eager to traverse the ocean of transmigratory existence, and kept questioning singly all sects in all countries from a desire to know the truth about God, religion, and the proper object of veneration, discovered that they all exalted their own systems and spoke evil of rival systems, and finding that his mind was placed upon the swing of doubt, he summoned Hemachandra, and asked him his opinion
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