Jain Journal 1972 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 12

148
JAIN JOURNAL
It is true there are no omniscient beings living in the world to-day ; unfortunately this is not possible in the present period of time. Omniscience is not something that can be hidden. Contrary to general opinion, the present age is one of spiritual darkness instead of enlightenment.
The Great Sages, who attained to divine immortality and who lived on this earth in past ages, are not products of imagination. One has only to study their teaching for a few months to realize the infallibility of the doctrine. Such a complete, satisfactory explanation of life and the universe must have beenythe result of direct perception, which means the Sages who taught the great ideal of life, must have actually realized it in themselves.
The true teachers of religion were not mythical figures, who came down from a Supreme Being to establish a kingdom, spiritual or otherwise. They were men who discovered the truth of their own being ; men who fought and won the greatest battle of all—that of soul over matter. They emerged victorious and triumphant in the great fight with their lower natures, not with the aid of any being outside of themselves, but by the acquisition of the iron will ; the ascetic soul-force that arises in the soul itself, because of its natural, infinite power.
It is only man's wrong beliefs and false knowledge that make him feel dependent on another being for his life and happiness. Those who believe and know the soul to be eternally self-dependent, possessing in its own nature all the attributes of omniscient life, overcome all such delusions once and for all.
Those who place their faith and trust in the beneficience of a Universal God, no doubt gain a great deal of comfort and inspiration thereby, but actually they stand very little chance of ridding their souls of the real forces of darkness. Wrong belief in itself is a power of "darkness", because it causes souls to develop a sense of inferiority, contrary to their real nature.
The rule is that whatever is "sown" into the soul through desire, has to be “reaped" eventually, unless proper steps are taken to uproot the evil effects of bad “sowing". Such is the unvarying law of karma, which rules our destiny.
It is well to remember that when death comes, as it must, the soul that has been purged of much of its poisonous matter, carries its