Book Title: Jainism the Creed for All Times
Author(s): D S Baya
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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Page 268
________________ out, they are broken, they are destroyed, they disappear and they reappear in some other forms. Nothing, living or lifeless remains the same. Everything or being is in a state of flux. The things change their modes; the living beings change their modes as well as their moods. If we have a careful look at things and beings around us, we cannot be oblivious to this process of change. We see that in the nature the seasons change, the weather changes, the days and nights change, the landscape changes, the trees and plants change, a small seed becomes a sapling and grows to become a big Banyan tree. The trees grow, shed leaves that grow again, it ages, falls and is reduced to fire-wood or dust. The child is born, grows to be a young man, and becomes a father himself. He grows old and dies. But is it the end of life? No, the person dies but the life goes on. He is reborn in another life to go through the same cycle of birth and death. How long? As long as the karmic bondage holds him to this worldly existence and he is forced by all-powerful karma to transmigrate in this world. He can liberate only after he has irresidually shed the karmic burden and freed himself to become a Siddha. But this is also not an end to the eternal process of change. Changing Modes of The Living and The Non--living - We must understand the process of change within the inherent permanence of everything that exists. As we have already seen, the universe is comprised of the living beings and the nonliving things. The Living Changes – We must understand as to how the living souls change their modes and in what way they remain permanent. Jainism believes in rebirth after death. As long as a soul is in its worldly existence it is reborn after the death in a particular life. A worldly soul is 240 : JAINISM: THE CREED FOR ALL TIMES

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