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THE SAVIOUR CHRIST
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The best way to be cured of prejudice and superstition is always to remember that such terms as God and Father were great mysteries, which the preachers of the Word of Truth in many lands kept back from all excepting the approved pupils. Note how the Apostle Peter puts off an ordinary enquirer on an occasion (A.N.C.L. vol. iii. p. 232):
“Then Peter said ... 'You seem to me not to know what & father and a God is : but I could tell you both whence souls are, and when and how they were made; but it is not permitted to me Row to disclose these things to you, who are in such error in respect of the knowledge of God.'"
The relationship between Jainism and Christianity may be summed up in one short sentence; the one describes the life of the God-Man in plain language, the other does it with allegorical orientation; in one, Mahāvīra (the last of the Tirthamkaras) is the God-Man whose example is to be followed; in the other He is in figurative style, idolised as a Redeemer of souls. It may be pointed out that there have been many worldredeemers in the different religions of the world, but they have all had at their back the life of one of the 24 Jinas or Elders as a solid fact. The references to a Saviour Christ in the early mystical writings or expositions must be read as referring to a real Jina, who alone is omniscient, not to an allegorical representation of Jina-hood. The writers knew that no one who disguised his thought or resorted to the allegorical style, that has misled millions and millions of seekers after the Truth, could be deemed to be omniscient, as is evident from the lucid statement from the Clementine Homilies (A.N.C.L. xvii. 61-62), quoted in 'our fifth
