________________
CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
Being intimately connected with Life, He is associated from his very birth with kine (go in Sanskrit, signifying the senses, whose control is intended by go-rekshya, vide PHB. Vol. II. p. 520). Mary, the virgin mother, is the intellect which conceives in consequence of spirit's brooding over it. The father of Jesus is a carpenter, another ingenious symbolism for the faculty represented by the Hindu deity Ganesha, since he cuts up (analysis) and joins together (synthesis) things. The conception is immaculate, because it is intellectual, not fleshly. The child developes in secret, till its enemies are destroyed, which means that the manifestation of Christhood is delayed after the acquisition of Right Faith so long as the evil tendencies and habits and beliefs are not sufficiently eradicated from the heart,by the quickening of the germ of Spirit from within. Then there is a course of asceticism which is to be followed and in consequence of which certain psychic powers are acquired by the soul. Now comes the important moment in the life of a novitiate when he stands at the cross-roads of destiny, so to speak, with the, forces of life and death in his power, for he has only to utilse these terrible powers for wordly dominion to mar his true progress. This is the temptation, the Evil One showing the realms of worldly empires to be acquired by obeisance to him. But the ascetic cannot turn away from his determination to crucify his lower self. He thus carries his cross, and is crucified at the place of Golgotha which means the place of the skull. The special significance of the skull is that it is the seat of an important
Jain Education International
203
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
