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Similarly, it is said:
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life" (Matt. xix.22).
MYTHOLOGY
This is precisely what the Jainas say, as will be evident from the following from the Ratna Karanda Srávakáchára, a work of great authority, dealing with the rules of conduct applicable to a house-holder :
"Those whose hearts have been purified by Right Faith become the Lords of splendour, energy, wisdom, prowess, fame, wealth, victory and greatness; they are born in high families and possess the ability to realise the highest ideals [dharma (religion), artha (wealth), kama (enjoyment) and moksha (salvation)] of life; they are the best of men.
"He who has quaffed the nector of dharma becomes freed from all kinds of pain, and drinks from the endless, unsurpassed and exalted fount of blissfulness of libera
tion,
"Those who follow the rigid path of renunciation and dharma dwell unexcelled for all eternity, in the joy of final beatitude, endowed with infinite wisdom, faith, energy, dispassion, bliss, satisfaction and purity. And if there be a cosmic disturbance violent enough to destroy the three worlds still no change is observable in the condition of the Perfect Souls even after the lapse of hundreds of kalas (cycles of time)."
We shall now work out the connection between Jesus and John the Baptist whose personality is one of the
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