Jainism Christianity and Science

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: The Indian Press Allahabad

Page 13

JAINISM
Innumerable Souls already exist in Nirvana; and a very very large number of them obtain release in each cycle of time. But there are four and twenty of this number in each cycle that are termed Tirthamkaras. The word signifies the founder of a tirtha which means a fordable passage across a sea. The Tirthamkaras show the 'fordable path' across the sea of interminable births and deaths. They may be called Teaching Gods. They alone are to be followed, for They alone possess the practical knowledge and have no motives to mislead any one.
The Jaina teaching was imparted at one time only orally. Certain Jainas later on allegorized the teaching of the Science of Salvation as taught by the Tirthamkaras. They were not Tirthamkaras, and failed to see the ultimate consequences of allegorizing of the spiritual cult. The pastime proved very fascinating; all communities and nations copied the early Jaina allegorists. The oldest compilation of allegories constitutes the sacred literature of the Hindus. The Jewish and the Christian sacred literature is also composed in allegorical style.
At first allegory proved very attractive; but later on it became the curse of humanity. The vulgar masses insisted on misinterpreting the mythical conceptions, taking them for real gods and goddesses. The knowers of the truth then had to hide their teaching from the
swine' and the dogs,' from the ‘Sudras' as the Hindus have termed them, for fear of molestation, which was a very real menace. This is why today it is so very very difficult to get at the truth of the various religious doctrines. The misinformed masses managed