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Four and Twenty Elders
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suns, according to Jainism, is also very great; but the residents of heavens are not so tall. This shows that in the Jaina view of things life can still exist on different planets though there may be no water on them, and that the element of heat has a great deal to do with the size of the humanity which may be peopling the different earths and planets and suns. On our own planet the race of giants seems to have disappeared thousand of years ago, though some of the later comers also grew to be taller than their contemporaries.
The ELDERS were all men who appeared at very great intervals from one another, excepting the last two, who were separated from each other by 250 years. They were the True Teachers of Religion, which is the SCIENCE OF SALVATION. They had practically realised it themselves, and attained to omniscience. They are called Tirthankaras as well as ELDERS in Jainism.
It is a habit with the Jains that they do not interest themselves in the doings and sayings of men who are not perfect, not even of the Tirthankaras prior to the attainment of Omniscience by them. For this reason the biographies of these Great Ones only taken up from the time when they part from their imperfection, except when an incident is connected with the life too intimately to be ignored.
Some of the Tirthankaras, including the first two are found mentioned by name in the Hindu scriptures. The recent reading of the seals and inscriptions found at Mohen-jo-Daro has revealed the worship of the first and the ninth Tirthankaras at that distant date (over five thousand years ago) in Sindh. Presumably the twenty-four Ahuras of the Parsis are the four and twenty Tirthankaras, but unfortunately the destruction of the Parsi Books does not admit of a satisfactory solution of the point.
But these Great LEADERS are also mentioned in the Jewish Esotericism, and are clearly the four and twenty ELDERS of the book of Revelation in the New Testament (see my "Jainism Christianity And Science”, “Rishabha Deva the Founder of Jainism” and “The Mystery of Revelation”.)
The ELDERS were all wonderful Men. They rose to the status of PERFECTION and DIVINITY by their own efforts, and taught the Path of Salvation to all men. The number of the Saved Ones is countless and infinite, but of the Elders only twenty-four in a
