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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
The most vital factor for human peace and happiness is unshakable confidence in that potential powers of one's own Self amongst the individuals constituting the society. Even the consciousness of the existence of eternal and infinite power within one's own self fills us with joy and adds zest to our life, and a meaning to our thoughts and actions. According to Jainism, the soul and matter are two important substances and the world itself is uncreate and eternal. There are infinite souls in the universe. The attributes of the soul are infinite knowledge or omiscience, infinite bliss, infinite strength and infinite energy. The soul is formless, is the maker of his own future, the enjoyer of the fruits of his own Karmas and is Siddha. The happiness and misery which we enjoy and suffer are of our own making. The path of liberation consists in the confluence of Right Faith in the tattvas, Right knowledge of the tattvas or the attributes of the soul, and Right conduct, that is, the faithful observance of all the austerities and rules of pure conduct. This triple Right path is designed to enable the soul to attain Godhood which is its own nature potentially3 Countless souls have attained liberation by following this path. This path is understandable and appears to common sense. The great poet Tennyson voiced the same doctrine when he said :
Self knowledge, self-reverence and self-control shall alone lead man to soveriegn power.
To those who feel diffident about themselves and their future, is not this philosophy that one's own self has all the attributes of Godhood and that every votary of the universal truths can attain that status, sufficient to inspire vision and strength in every individual to realize that the path of righteous duty is the way to glory and the attainment of Siddha status ? Whoever leads a life of Ahiṁsā, self-control and penance shall attain happiness here and hereafter. This message that every living being is the architect of his own fortune comes as a boon infusing new hope and aspirations in all those who need a rationalistic religion to follow,
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