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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
433
loss of faith is created due to obstinacy, undue persistence or wrong beliefs. Contact of such persons who have lost their faith is believed to bring about dreadful consequences. It is also declared elsewhere :
"Evil company brings about evil intentions which induce to evil actions which further lead to a chain of miseries".
False view point means perverted view. We shall discuss about "Sixty seven words' to guide you in the path of maintaining your right belief as un-adulterated and fully protected. The second requisite for the right belief as laid down in the stanza, "Jina-Vayane-Anuratta” etc., is the practice of religious rites zealously carried out. How would Karmas be destroyed when you mean the prophet's words as true, when you mean the rites laid down by them as proper and do not practise them at all in life. How can a patient be cured of a disease when he does not use the medicine despite having the knowledge about the medicine and having obtained the very medicine. Thus actual observance of religious rites accompanied with faith and understanding is also essential.
Some hold that mere knowledge leads to salvation whereas the others opine that mere religious rites procure salvation ; but they are only relatively true or true when viewed from only one point of view. One sided view is a false view. Doctrine of relative judgment declares that salvation is obtained by knowledge a practice of religious rites. Knowledge cannot without such practice individually beget salvation. In this connection the Tain 'Acharyas' have quoted interesting anology of “a blind man led by a lame man”.
BLIND MAN LED BY A LAME MAN
A city caught fire and all the residents vacated the city in no time, whereas a blind man and a lame man could not leave the city. The blind man thought : "Alas, if I could see ; blind as I am, I cannot escape". The lame man reflected : "Alas! I cannot walk at all. How can I run away to save myself" ?
The fire spreading wide and wild was approaching the blind man and the lame man with leaps and bounds. They failed to find the way out. But the lame man was struck with an idea. He said :
