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perfection-to our own souls. As said in the Key of Knowledge, the causal connection between the ideal of the soul and the worshipping of Those who have already realized it is to be found in the fact that the realization of an ideal demands one's wholehearted attention, and is only possible by following in the footsteps of those who have actually reached the same goal. It is this idea which a great English poet has immortalized in the following words:
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind as
Footprints ou the sands of time: Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn mainA forlorn and ship-wrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again."
C
The daily puja and prakshala of the pratibimbas of the Holy Tirthamkaras are the source of much good; they tend to strengthen one's faith at the same time as they enable merit to be acquired by the withdrawal of the mind from the attachments and concerns of the world and by its being directed to the true side of Life. The whole scheme of worship in Jainism is that from the moment one sets one's foot in the temple till the time of one's departure from it, one should be constantly accu
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