________________
CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
173
are we of our "history” that we cannot afford to be moved by the injunction! In the book of Revelation also we have it :"He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith anta
the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, wbich is in the nidst of the
paradise of God" (ch&p. ii. 7). I think it is useless to multiply further instances, It is a clear case of non-historical documents being treated as narratives of fact. The impossible relationship of a father and a son both of whom are said to be co-eval and eternal is a sufficient reason, in itself to falsify the bistorical sense. As I stated in the Key of Knowledge, we are not dealing here with a case where an historical nucleus is needed to account for subsequent deification ; the documents before us are purely mythological in nature, and cannot be construed as bistory. The only real person at the back of this huge tangle of mythical lore is the composer of the original work which seems to have furnished the source and substratum of the mutually contradictory accounts of the gospels; but unfortunately he has not deemed it fit to reveal himself to the world. That he was a man of considerable wisdom and enlightenment and familiar with some of the most abstruse doctrives of mysticism and yoga is evident from his work, though, for obvious reasons, we are precluded from regarding the gospel narratives as his auto-biography,
The nature of the contradictions which exist in connection with the life of Jesus, when we try to study
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
