Jainism

Author(s): Vallabh Smarak Nidhi
Publisher: Vallabh Smarak Nidhi

Page 38

and all human souls worthy of Godhood aro given reverence without distinction of colour, caste or country. The Jaina Nav kara Mantra; recited by the Jains many times a day, pays homage not to individuals but to five classes of Parameshthins (Supreme Ones ):
1. Arhats, embodied souls which have attained omniscience. .
2. Siddhas, who have discarded even the body and attained final liberation.
3. Acharyas, heads of the monastic order. 4. Upadhyayas, teacher-saints. 5. Sadhus, ordinary ascetics.
Every known object has innumerable characters or Dharmas. Only Arhats or omniscient souls can know an object in all its various as. pects. Our knowledge is relative and partial. consequently our judgments about a thing are true only from a certain standpoint. We cannot claim that an object exists only in the way or form in which we know it. Others may see it from a different angle. It is also a common experience that after the lapse of some time