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The Jaina Philosophy exhausts our earthly duration. The bees in the honey-comb are the organs of senses - the honey drops, represent the sensuous pleasures, and the monk represent the Truth - Religion. So the whole symbol means this that the ordinary man of the world thinks he will not be cut of from life at once, satisfies himself by enjoying the sensuous pleasures derived from the senses, and does not care to receive the truths offered by true philosophy; he being influenced by sentiments of anger, vanity, deceit and greediness represented by the four serpents.” I was quite astonished with this explanation of the picture and this is the view of life taken by the Hindus. I was not 8 years old then.
Twenty years later (only a few months ago) I read one of Prof. Max Muller's works and was more astonished to see that he also expressed himself in very nearly the same terms. Here are his words : "Our idea of life on earth has always been that of a struggle for existence - a struggle for power and dominion, for wealth and enjoyment. These are the ideas which dominate the history of all nations whose history is known to us."
The other symbol is that of seven blind men and the elephant. The seven blind men wanted to know what kind of an animal an elephant was. They went together to the place where the elephant was kept. One of them placed his hands on the ears, another on the legs, another on the tail of the elephant, and so on. When they were asked by the people what kind of an animal it was, one of the blind men said : "O, to be sure, the elephant is like a big winnowing fan." Another blind man said : "No, my dear sir, you are wrong. The elephant is like a big round. post.” The third : "You are all mistaken; it is like a tapering stick. The rest gave their different opinions."
The proprietor of the elephant said : “My friends, you are all mistaken. You have not examined the elephant from all sides. Had you done so, you would not have taken one sided views." In
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