Jainism Christianity and Science

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

Page 91

FOUR AND TWENTY ELDERS
One on the Throne. Such is the scenic imagery of the “ Hall of Initiation." A detailed elucidation is given in my other books, e.g., 'The Key of Knowledge and the Confluence of Opposites.' Briefly, the beasts represent the different kinds of souls that are embodied in the four elements (of matter), namely, the earthbodied (represented by the lion, since he walks on earth), the air-bodied (represented by the eagle who flies in the air), the water-bodied (represented by the calf, which here is the young of the sea-mammals), and the fire-bodied (represented by the sun which is painted as the face of a man). Wings are a symbol for time, since it flies; and the number six is descriptive of the six aras (spokes) or a half-cycle in which four and twenty Tirthamkaras appear and preach the Truth. Plainly put, the significance of the secret teaching is only this that Life is Divine, and its divinity is manifested most perfectly and fully in the case of four and twenty Tirthamkaras, who appear in a half-cycle of time, consisting of six aras, and preach the Noble Truth to and for the benefit of the souls embodied in material bodies.
Clement of Alexandria, who, according to Methods, was an immediate disciple of St. Peter himself, writes in the A.N.C.L. Series, vol. xi. pp. 365-366 :
"He then who has first moderated his passion and trained him. self for impassibility, and developed to the beneficence of gnostic perfection, is here equal to the angels. Luminous already, and like the sun shining in the exercise of beneficence, he speeds by. righteous knowledge through the love of God to the sacred abode, like as the apostles. And although here upon earth he be not honoured with the chief seat, he will sit down on the four and twenty thrones, judging the people, as Joha says in the Apocalypse."