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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
difference between Jainism and other creeds, then, comes to this that while in the other religions a handful of 'corn' lies mixed up with an enormous quantity of chaff in such a manner that it is almost impossible to pick out the useful grain, in Jainism the Holy Tirthamkaras have taken the utmost care to allow only the purest truths to be incorporated. Hence, while the other religions dread the search-light of intellect, Jainism insists on its full blaze being turned on the problems of Life. Hence, also, where the other religions demand faith in the pupil, Jainism only requires the employment of intellect to understand and appreciate its teaching. It is not that where intellect is not fully developed, its teaching may not be of help to the soul, if sincerely put into practice, but that exact and scientific knowledge is necessary for speedy progress, since religious truths are at once converted into beliefs the moment they are verified by intellect. Jainism, tben, is the Path of Liberation par excellence.
There remains the point of the practicability of the high ideal set by Religion before mankind. Some of us might be inclined to think that if all men were to devote their lives to religion, civilization would come to an end, and a state of general confusion and chaos would be the result. Certainly, the kind of civilization which produces abnormal men and institutions would come to an end, for when it is realized that the soul has neither nationality, nor class, nor sex of its own, and that it may incarnate in any body, in any country, and in any sex, in its next incarnation, people would pay more attention to the welfare of their souls than to such matters as
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