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AN EPITOME OF JAINISM.
Ideal.
the drunkard becomes addicted to wine,
the criminal becomes habituated to crime, Autonomy is the ultimate or the devotee bends his knees in the shrine.
Whatever we think and whatever we do, we think and act consciously or unconsciously for the attainment of peace and bliss or autonomy. This really constitutes the Highest End or Idea for which we all live and move and have our being in the universe. And in proportion the nature and character of this Ideal varies with the changes of the angles of vision we take, according to the principles of Naya and that from the different stages of our life, the means we employ for the realization of the ideal in view also vary as well. But in any case, there is no denial of the fact that it is we that are the free agents in the determination, selection and adoption of an alternative course which would be most conducive to the realization of the end we have in view for the time. All the aspirations of life, all our reasons for our living, all that we think, tend in reality to augment - this our sense of freedom of thought and action. We can
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