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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
In general the rajju is used as a relative rather than as an absolute measure. 62 In modern Theosophical literature we find reference to a socalled "eighth sphere” where only those who have abandoned and opposed every spark of higher nature will go. Finally, after many lifetimes of evildoing, the thread between their personal and spiritual souls is broken, and then the personal soul reaches "avichi-nirvāna,” the opposite of nirvāna. But even those are not lost forever. In the next grand cycle of evolution they will have
art all over again. Nothing in the universe is destroyed forever. 63 A yojanas is - according to varying opinions - 8 to 15 km. 64 The eighth is Nandiśvara Dvīpa, and the last one Svayambhuramana Dvīpa. 6S Manushottara Mountain Range. 66 In Hindu literature (Vishnu Purāna) this mountain range encircles the seventh and outermost dvīpa. 67 In Hindu literature it the cones are narrowest at the surface of the earth and that they become wider and wider both above and below the earth. The partly diabolical shape of the Jain universe also suggests that a magnetic “mountain” in a magnetic universe is meant rather than a physical continent 68 Because the central, round dvīpa, Jambūdvīpa, is encircled by saltwater and we live on it, and the other dvīpas which are unperceivable by the eye, have the same center point, namely Mount Meru, we may suppose that Jambūdvīpa refers to our earth. In modern Theosophical literature (The Secret Doctrine* and Fountain Source of Occultism**) we find commentaries on Mount Meru which may provide a key to understanding the meaning (or one of the meanings) of the three cones of which it is composed. There we find, briefly summarized, three “floors” or stages which are the spiritual home of humanity. The "ground floor" is described as: “the beautiful and mysterious region of Sambhala [*under which beats the heart of Mother earth']; the
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