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The Jaina Philosophy We may find in the reports of the missionaries that 72,000 people are waiting for baptism in India, and there are not hands enough to baptize them. This was asked me, and I said that I myself had not seen the peole who were waiting for this, but there is no difficulty in baptizing them; the Americans are a very inventive people, and they can easily send over a few fireengines to India to solve the difficulty. Thus there are many reports in this country about India of which we in India have never heard. We say, then that though we can derive many results, obtain many occult powers by the practise of these moral acts that is not the object of the moral acts. They are to be practised for their own sake. Finally comes in the spiritual nature of the soul.
What is, really speaking the spiritual nature of the soul? It may be said to have a centre but no circumference, and therefore cannot be described by any words; it can only be experienced by all of us, if we are living on that plane; but we can sometimes describe it by simile. The idea of the soul is always explained by the circle. Its having no circumference means simply that there is a unit, a real soul, but it cannot be located. All oriental nations are fond of using similes, and in fact, in the ancient times there was no other way of explaining these things. The Egyptians often used the figure of a cat for representing the moon, and some mythologists have said that there was a cat behind the moon in their conception; but that was not the idea. The idea was that the cat can see in the night, and the moon is the source from which we obtain light at night. The idea of spirit and matter coming into conjunction has been represented by a cross. That does not mean that matter is always in a perpendicular and spirit in a horizontal position, but only that this figure expresses the idea. So we have hundreds and thousands of symbols which may not be described by any words.
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