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Siddhas would not lose there individuality in an all, embracing Self, the retort of Jainism would of course be that if the so called Infinite Self includes us all and all our experiences, --sensations and sins as well as the rest, in the unity of one life, and if there is but one and same final Self for us and each all, then with a literalness it, indeed appalling, He is we and we are He ; nay He is I and I am He. Now if we read the conception in the first way what becomes of our ethical independance ?
- What, of our personal reality, our righteousness and ethical responsibility? What becomes of Him? Then surely He is but another name for me or you of any of the Siddhas. And how can there be a talk of a moral order, of a moral cosmos, since there is but a single mind in this case and we cannot ligitimately call that a Person! When it is made to mean absolute identity, then all the worth of true nearness is gone and with it the openness of access, the freedom of converse and the joy of true reciprocity vanish altogether. These precious things all draw their meaning from the distinct reality of
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