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PART II
LORD MAHAVIRA AND OTHER ENLIGHTENED BEINGS: THE WISDOM
OF EXPERIENCE
Lord Mahavira is the 24th crossing-maker of the Jain religion. A crossing-maker is one who builds a bridge, metaphorically speaking, from this world to a liberated state of being on the other side. Mahavira's teachings resemble those of other founders of world religions, such as the Buddha, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Confucius, and Moses.
Guruji's own viewpoint is perennialist in this respect. He believed that there is no essential difference between the major world religions since they are all based upon the viewpoint that reality is a divine unity or oneness. This was the basis for Guruji's religious open- mindedness and tolerance and it is logically related to the nonabsolutist viewpoint of Jainism.
The late Aldous Huxley stated that there are four doctrines of perennialism : 1. reality is divine unity or oneness ; 2. human nature is a compound of an empirical ego
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