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Dearly Beloved
[ the tradition of the lord aristanemi )
LEONA SMITH KREMSER
A bow to the Lord Aristanemi By the humble poet, His devotee. May all living beings of freewill vow In His compassionate footprints to follow.
Now the poet begs permission To recite the dearly beloved, the tradition Of a bridegroom who spared animals from a fate unjust, Then, O stout-hearted, he threw his jewels to the dust. At that auspicious moment fell divine flowers In a perfume of Jasmine showers, Even as the new pilgrim took the asceticism By the gentle name of Jainism.
Jainism is the religion of non-violence Wherein all living beings receive reverence In the venerable Jaina vision that one and all Living beings have souls pure, individual and eternal, And living beings, in the ethos of Jainism, Include celestials through the elements as in animism. Thus every living form is in self conscious And injury thereto is disastrous
-Less to the victim than to the doer, By the cruel deed reduced to a moral leper. O, the bitter potion of retribution By way of karma and reincarnation'.
1 Karma is the law of cause and effect. Good deeds are the causes of good effects
for the soul, bad deeds are the causes of bad effects. Thus, as ye sow, so shall ye reap.
Reincarnation in the Jaina usage, transmigration is the law that the soul at death passes into a new body. This new body results from carry-over karmas. Thus transmigration allows the time necessary for cause to bear effect, in this life or in the lives to come.
The companion laws of karma and transmigration secure perfect justice for the universe.
Books by Dr. Mohan Lal Mehta, by titles in the reference section, detail the distinctive Jaina system of karma and transmigration.
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