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THE JAINA GAZETTE The body says, 'I have not sinned; it is the soul. Since it wont forth from me I have been like a stone that is thrown on the ground.'"
Freedom from the clutches of matter is thus tantamount to sinlessness, divinity, eternal life and glory for the soul.
Matter it is that is described as the Devil in the ancient Hebrew literature. We read in the "Lost Apocrypha," already referred to (see page 46): "For the devil resisted, trying to deceive, saying. The body is mine, for I am the lord of Matter.' He was snubbed (see the work quoted, p. 46) with.' The Lord rebuke thee, that is the Lord who is Master of all spirits. The contrast is true to nature, and constitutes one of the basic principles of Religion. Accordingly, it has been said (Loc. Cit. 54):
"But the saints of the Lord shall inherit the Glory of God
and His power." This means nothing if not the becoming of God which is the end in view, as will be clear with a reference to the following verses :
1. “.......be ye holy for I am holy " (1 Peter i. 16.)
2. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.”—Matt. v. 48.
It was for this reason that Seth whose name signified resurrection was also called God (Ibid. p. 9). This is, indeed, the old Indian teaching, which maintains that the atman (soul) itself becomes the Paramatman (the Supreme Soul, hence God) on deification, that is by ridding Himself of the companionship of matter. In the Hebrew apocryphal thought, the promise to the devotee is significant :
"............will raise you out of your coffins" (Ibid. 88). This surely did not signify the raising of the dead on a speci. fied judgment day at the end of the world-cycle. Its true (allegorical). interpretation only is the conquest of death by attaining to immortality, so that the soul who is really divine in its real nature may on the cessation of the evil influence of matter--caffin signifying the body of flesh-attain to its inborant natural godhood. Accordingly the apocryphal doctrine
puts.it: Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
