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FURTHER ELUCIDATIONS “Behold, I make the latter things as the first” (Ibid. 88). We may compare this with the Hindu teaching, as embodied in the hymn to Yama :
“All imperfections leave bebind: Assume thy ancient frame once moreEach limb and sense thou hadst before,
From every earthly taint refined!" The attainment of the inherent Divinity is possible by means of tapascharana, that is to say. asceticism. In the Apocryphal language taposcharana becomes the Intelligent Fire.
'...a fire which distinguishes between the good and the bad,"......destroying the worse and preserving the better, for which reason this fire is called in the Prophets
intelligent."_Ibid. 90. The " Pistis Sophia" speaks of a very great, very vehement wise fire which will burn up sins " (Ibid. 90). It is to be distinguished from the ordinary fire which can only burn up the flesh.
“We say that the fire sanctifies not the flesh but the sinful soul: we do not mean the all-devouring ordinary fire, but the intelligent, that penetrates the soul that passes
through the lire" (Ibid. 90). The baptism of fire of the Christian creed, in reality, only bears reference to this Intelligent Fire. The Holy Ghost, again, is just another form of this elegent personification.
The evil to be destroyed is described as evil spirits or giants, they arise from the association of spirit and matter and the lustful actions of embodied being -
" And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirit and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their living." ... " And the spirit of the giants afflitt, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and cause destruction on the earth, and
cause trouble : they take no food, but nevertheless hunger sownia chirst, and cause offences. And these spirit's shall rise
up against the chitdren of men and against the women,
because they have proceeded from them."_The Book of 1.1. Enoch, p: 43. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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