________________
172
THE JAINA GAZETTE
circumstances of the man and the nature of the thing. When you look at the picture of a prostitute, it is likely to produce voluptuous and lascivious thoughts within you. On the other hand, if you look at the image of some spiritually advanced person, a spectacle of sanctity and holiness will present itself to your eyes which will purify your whole self. Thus no body can deny that a material thing made by the hand of man produces good or bad effect upon man. Even words are nothing but images of certain thoughts. When you hear a speech, it always produces a good or bad elfect upon you. Now speech in its turn, is a collection of words which are the images of the thoughts of the speaker. If those words be reduced to writing and any body were to read that writing, it will certainly create within him those very thoughts of which the words are the images.
Images are of three kinds :—First, those the shape of which is not similar to that of the original but which are assumed to represent the original, as the word hors 3 written on paper or spoken by word of mouth. Second, those the shape of which is similar to that of the original but which cannot be touched like the original thing itself, as the picture of a horse drawn upon a piece of paper. Third, those the shape of which is similar to that of the original and which is also tangible, as a solid image of a horse. Now all these pictures represent a horse and produce the idea of a horse within one's mind. All men use such images or pictures ; it is, in fact, inevitable for man to use them. No worldly affair can be carried on without the use of images or pictures.
Jiva (soul or spirit) in this world is surrounded on all sides by matter. The Svabhava of Jiva is Jnana ; but as it is, like milk and water, intermingled with, and surrounded on all sides by matter, it has, to a great extent, lost its Svabhava, the Jnana. It can of course gain its full Jnana by being separated from matter but this cannot be accomplished all at once. In this mundane condition, Jiva can, on all its sides, find nothing save matter : it cannot think but of matter, and it cannot do anything
without the help of matter. Until it is very highly advanced Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
