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THE JAINA GAZETTE Lord" immediately elicits the gentle but clear disclaimer of superiority: “I am not thy lord, but thy, fellow-servant." The idea is simply that of a co-worker,' of one who has by his own work attained to a position which qualifies him to guide others, who have still to work out their destiny.
This is to be consummated in the last generations along with the end of the world; for we are told :
"Both the ends of this world and all this vision will be consummated in the last generations " (Ibid. 61). In vain shall we search for an external Christ to appear into the world towards its.end and to fulfil the vision; what is meant by the end of the world is the end of the wandering of the soul in transmigration, while the last generations imply nothing more or less than the last few incarnations prior to one's entering nirvana. The inner Divinity has already appeared as Christ in the life of innumerable souls, towards the end of their samsara (the end of individual transmigration) in the last two or three generations (lives or incarnations); and they became Gods. They are those who sleep not, who know all things, and who have the best reasons for praising the blessed and blissful nature of Life. They enjoy sleepless bliss, and are above the trouble and turmoil of the world! These Holy Ones are termed Siddhas in Jainism ; but four and twenty out of Them who attain to the utmost as Divine Teachers are termed Tirtham“ karas. They are the same as are referred to as the four and twenty Elders in the last book of the New Testament. They are also to be found in the lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament. It is said in "The Ladder of Jacob":--
“And the top of the ladder was the face as of a man, hewn out of fire. Now it had twelve steps upto the top of the ladder, and upon each step upto the top were two human faces on the right and on the left-twenty four faces seen to the breast, on the ladder. But the middle face was higher than them all, which I saw made of fire, to the shoulder and the arm, very terribly, more than the
twenty four faces......" The explanation given iç this :Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
