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188: JAINS TODAY IN THE WORLD
Jains show also a great respect and a large admiration for all their spiritual Masters (Acārya, Upadhyāya) and for their ascetics (monks and nuns) to whom they give the title of "saints”. This is easy to understand. They are the living symbols of their religious ideal. They are human beings like them who are making meritorious efforts and great restraints to attain their liberation more rapidly.
Jains have also a friendly, kind and compassionate attitude towards all that lives, that is to say: humans, animals, plants or minute souls being in the earth, air, water and fire. They consider that all lives have a soul, like them, and if they do not succeed to cleanse all the “karma” from their own, they may reborn after their death as one or another of these forms. Their great respect and permanent care to them are the actual demonstrations of their belief in a possible transmigration of their soul into these various forms, if they do not attain their own liberation, after their death or after their next births and deaths.
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Their symbol-objects
Jains worship an abundance of things and objects whose the meanings are interesting to know.
Temples are, for those who construct and worship them, the most perceptible symbols of their faith and of their immense artistic talent. Their location evokes quietude and peace. Their architectural structure, at the same time massive and very finely carved, is the sign of the strength of their tenets and the shrewdness of their comprehension of the world. Their form calls to mind the assembly (samavasaraņa) of the Tirthankara when they preach or the "cosmic man” we will speak a little later. In the choir (gharbagsha) of their temples, they install one or more Jina who represent the conquerors of their passions; in the nave (mandapa) numerous pillars symbolize the trees of forests where ascetics like to stay to withdraw from the world.
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