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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
18 The umbrella is the symbol of giving protection. Kings have one umbrella, signifying that they protect and control the world (called middle world) and its inhabitants; Tīrthamkaras and great initiates are depicted with three (sometimes more) umbrellas, symbolizing that they have knowledge of and control over all three worlds (lower, middle, and upper). 19 Known as kshatriyas, vaiśyas and sudras respectively. 20 Kevala-jñ ina. 21 Ācārya Devasena (8th century) says that the Buddha was a great learned disciple of the saint Pihitāsrava who ordained him as muni Buddhakirti in the Sangha of Parśvanātha, the twentythird Tīrthamkara of the present era (Hiralal Jain: Jainism in Buddhist Literature, (www.ibiblio.org/jainism/database/BOOK/jainbudh.doc) 22 Lalwani, Kastur Chand (transl.): Kalpa Sūtra of Bhadrabāhu Svāmī, Motilal Barnarsidass, Delhi, 1979. 23 Arhat, literally “killer of his (inner) enemy” i.e. passion. 24 One of the Indo-Tibetan teachers of H.P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society wrote in a letter in 1881 or 2 to A.O. Hume (who is well-known as the founder of the Congress Party in India) about matter: “there is a moment in the existence of every molecule and atom of matter when, for one cause or another, the last spark of spirit or motion or life (call it by whatever name) is withdrawn, and in the same instant with the swiftness which surpasses that of the lightning glance of thought the atom or molecule or an aggregation of molecules is annihilated to return to its pristine purity of intra-cosmic matter. It is drawn to the mother fount with the velocity of a globule of quicksilver to the central mass. Matter, force, and motion are the trinity of physical objective nature, as the trinitarian unity of spirit-matter (spirit, matter, and their underlying unity) is that of the spiritual or subjective nature. Motion is eternal because spirit is eternal. But no modes of motion can be conceived unless they be in connection with matter.” From: Barker, A.T.: The
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