________________ path of the initiate and erring." Shrimadji has been very strong in his criticism of these various creeds that have developed in the name of the religion of the liberated Jinas. He has shown in his Atmasiddhi Shastra that the founders of the various creeds have measured their own level and substituted their imperfect beliefs for the true religion. The wrangling of the Jain religious heads in support of their self-chosen paths of liberation and ethical discipline flows from ignorance and leads to the sharpening of prejudices. Sometimes the highly advanced religious souls are misguided by the rise of infatuating (Mohaniya) Karmas in them and in such circumstances they offer sham religion for the real one, to their followers. It also happens that finding the difficulty of attaining to the path of the liberated souls, one decides for himself and his followers that the path is not worth following and that what he has achieved for himself is the last limit of achievement for all. Besides, one may not have enough intelligence and discrimination to grasp the reasonableness of the path of the liberated Jinas. Unfavorable times, selection of wrong persons as the religious teachers, general ignorance of the Shastras and the reluctance to study them for oneself are also some of the causes why various religious castes and sub-creeds develop in the body of the old established religions. Shrimadji says that the present times are such that the educated are bankrupt in the fund of faith needed for religious discipline. Very few have faith in religion. Those who have faith do not study the religion for themselves nor do they seek proper Guru who can explain them the truths of religion. In case a few try to understand religion there are many who will obstruct their path rather than help them. This is the plight of the educated people of the time and they keep away from religion. The uneducated in the present times, on the other hand, are so inert and orthodox that they fear to go a step beyond the beliefs of their forefathers and they go the easy way of following blindly the religion of their ancestors. Hence, they believe that the religious teachers, accepted by the elders in age, know everything and that they should be followed wholeheartedly. Neither worshipped nor the uneducated worshiper cares to obtain knowledge and both are rocked in the cradle of a few accepted slogans and pet forms of prayer. One can rarely find in the present religious folds of Jain religion, one who has intense desire for knowing and following the eternal path of the liberated Jinas. Normally the Jain Sadhus are initiated by force of adverse circumstances or by an accidental rise of the spirit of intense non-attachment by distressing events. One who really wants to follow the eternal path of the Jinas gets suffocated in the clumsy practices of the Jain creeds and he runs out of these clutches to a wider atmosphere and freedom wherein he can make real progress. Shrimadji says that there are very few souls interested in spiritual religious research. Those, who would heartily desire to be free and would actively work for it, are still few. Even for such souls the proper guides by way of an enlightened Guru, proper religious contacts and the supply of adequate religious scriptures are difficult to obtain. Every one who is given a hearing by them, blows his own trumpet and never inquires whether what he says is true, half-true or untrue. Besides, even these few souls starving for 13
