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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
living leader of that profession as his ideal, and should walk in his footsteps to attain to his eminence. Can a law student ever hope to become an eminent lawyer by worshipping an idol of mystic fancy, say, Alladin of the wonderful lamp ? He must make up his mind to attend. on the man who has already risen to eminence in the profession, not to worship him, nor even to beg him to throw a slice of his greatness towards him, but to keep him in mind as the ideal to be attained, and to follow him on the path which leads to its realization. Then alone can good come out of devotion. It is high time that mankind understood the true sense of worship : it is not the devotion to a person, but to an ideal which is enjoined by religion. The great ideal of the divine status, which must be idolized to be realized, is the original of the devotee's god ; and it is time misspent to bow before any other gods and goddesses, who, like a blind alley, lead to nowhere, but keep their devotees entangled in the same place with themselves--the region of darkness and untruth.
We may also observe that the world-process being eternal, that is, without a beginning in time, there never was a time when the status of perfection could be said to have been in abeyance. Hence, Perfect Souls have always existed in the Siddha Sila, and will always exist there in the future. Ordinarily, however, it is only necessary to offer obeisance to the twenty-four Tirthamkaras of the current cycle for the purposes of worship.
We must now proceed to enquire into the nature of ajiva, the second of the two main divisions into which substance is divided in the Jaina Siddhanta. This
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