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Gommatsara, Jiva-kand
117 Soverign Law of Causation, from the unconquerable Rigour of Karma. The Stages and Quests of the soul here below are entirely due to this. The omniscients of old, the saints, with souls which were purer than the purest ideals concievable by men, and stronger than adamant in their body and more lustrous in the Light of their souls than the sun or many suns,-these saints saw these Eternal Principles of Life and embodied thein in their teachings. These teachings are for all souls high or low, in all ages and in all climes. There is no barrier of castes, creed or colour to their investigation and adoption. The greater part of Jaina literature is still unpublished.
its lustre is not shed all over the world. Therefore the whole of humanity is in the iron-grip of war, of trade-jealousy and trade-deceit, of pain and selfishness, of dejection, disappointment and fear.
Evidently in Religion and Philosophy there is no greater concept than Soul; and in the whole world there is no greater phenomenon than life.
This book throws a flood of light on the question of Living beings as we know them and how they may reach their ideal-Nirvana.
Living nan as we see him is obviously a combination of two distinct substances; Living and Non-living. Let us consider these.
At the outset one marvellous thing is noticeable. We do see purely nonliving things, as the pen with which I am writing or the paper which you are reading. But pure life is never met with in the world. So the position really is that we have :
(1) Living substance mixed with non-living substance; and
(2) Non-living substance. There is non-living matter in both. But in one there is life also; in the other, not.
Another important and useful fact is the fact of death.
It is not annihilation of anything, soul or matter. It is only a separation of the outer body from the soul, which is still combined with two inaterial but fine bodies. It is only when soul obtains liberation, that it becomes permanently pure and completely rid of all combination with matter. By careful comparison we can find a trace to the characteristic features of life and its differences from lifelessness.
The first thing we notice in one, who was living but is dead now, is that his senses do not act. He cannot touch, taste, smell, see or hear. He has no
itality of the senses. Also he is powerless. He cannot act, speak or think. He has no force, no vitality of body, speech or mind. But many of these things may be absent also in a living man who is asleep, in a trance or otherwise
concious. Therefore all over the world we examine the man's respiration, If it is there, we say, "he still lives.” If not, we say he has breathed his last.” So Spenser speaks of Death as "nought but parting of the breath.”* This respiration is a sure sign of life. It is also popular speech to say of a dead
* Faerie Queene, Book VII, canto 7, stanza 46,
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