Jain Journal 1980 10

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

Page 23

The Bright Religion of the Jinas
LEONA SMITH KREMSER
Thus declares the religion of the Jinas
to the great, dark questions
of life and death:
At the moment of death,
the soul transfers to another body
coming into life at that very moment -life in one of the four states of existence, celestial, human, subhuman or infernal.
The circumstance of that life
manifests a retributive justice -the cosmic law of cause and effect
wherein thought, word and deed from past lives make time, place, manner and agent of and likewise, the doings of present life make the links of circumstance for future lives.
present life,
Beyond the cycles of birth and death
shines forth liberation, at the top of the universe where abide the many free souls,
like all souls in fact, pure, individual and eternal, and here forever into omniscience and bliss -fulfilment of past lives in service to the vows of harmlessness, restraint and hard penance.
This way do the souls of all living things suffer transmigration and gather karma,
and this way now do the few, awake while others sleep
in this age of spiritual darkness,
upward move, towards liberation.
Thus declares the bright religion of the Jinas that is a path out of a dark bondage into liberation.