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JAINISM, CHRISTIANITY & SCIENCE
. more in detail. It is sufficient in this place to mention , that matter pours in with every one of its actions into
the soul and constitutes a terrible bondage, shutting it out from knowledge as if forming a film over its eyes (consciousness).
"Save me, o God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing : I am come unto deep waters, where the floods overflow me."-Ps. Ixix. 1 & 2.
"The individual man is stamped according to the impression produced in the soul by the objects of his choice."-(Clement) A.N.O.L. vol. xii. p. 214.
Water is a symbol for matter.
"... matter is allegorically called water, the abyss."-A.N.C. L. vol. xxiv. p. 117.
" And 18 not baptism itself, which is the sign of regeneration, an escape from matter, by the teaching of the Seviour, a great impetuous stream, ever rushing on and bearing us along? The Lord accordingly, leading us out of disorder, illumines us by bringing us into light, which is shadowless and 18 material no longer."-Ibid. p. 118.
"... For they were afraid that if they received not in this world the punishment of the sins which, in numbers through ignorance, accompany those that are in the flesh, they would in the other world suffer the penalty all at once..."-Ibid. p. 119.
"But since that which is saved is like wheat, and that which grows in the soul like chaff, and the one is incorporeal, and that which is separated is material ... "-Ibid. p. 124.
In the following quotations there is a mention of the emptying of matter from the soul, termed nirjarā in Jainism :
"Especially does fasting empty the soul of matter. ..."(Syriac Documents) A.N.C.L. vol. xxiv. p. 121.
" And for this reason the Saviour was baptized, though not HimBelf needing to be so in order that He might consecrate the whole
