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JAINISM AS THE COMMON PLATFORM
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which has to be correctly interpreted before its purport can be clearly perceived. This is tantamount to saying that the language of very many religious books is extremely deceptive and will mislead the enquirer unless he be possessed of a highly discerning mind. The gods are only so many personi. fications of doctrinal conceptions of the Science of Religion. I have interpreted hundreds of these impersonations and ex. plained whole systems of allegorical thought in my books (see the Key of Knowledge, the Confluence of Opposites, etc.), and shown that each allegory, when properly interpreted, just reveals a valuable doctrine or doctrinal conception, which is common to all true religions. The differences have thus completely disappeared and melted away, and in their place a full and lasting agreement is found to be prevailing among the religions of the world. The interpretation of allegory and myth, it should, however, be stated, must not be attempted in an unscientific way. There is a clear method of interpretation the ignorance of which has misled many an illequipped explorer of the Secret Wisdom. Lastly, it is found that the matter of agreement in all religions bears a scientific aspect, and is fully capable of being reduced to exact laws. The doctrinal re enforcements, too, that are received, as the result of a scientific interpretation of allegory all fall in a line with the basic principles of Truth, and, taken together, constitute a complete explanation of the Science of Salvation, as Religion might properly be called. I have shown this fully in my books, some of which have already been nained.
The function of religion proper, then, is to enable man to attain to the Perfection of Spiritual nature. This was originally taught as a science, and men claim to have attained to Divine Perfection by following the doctrine in the practical scientific way. Allegory owed its existence to the poetical exuberance of certain individuals who personified every thing. In every community and nation allegorists arose, and accomplished the work of creative Fancy. When people forgot the
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