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the liability to expansion and contraction in the manner of an unevolved jiva, slightly less than that of the body from which nirvâna is attained, Those who might find it difficult to reconcile this view of the Jaina Siddhanta with the prevailing notions of the Hindus and others who maintain that nirvana signifies an absorption into the deity-the merging of the drop in the sea -would find it easier to understand the nature of the form of the siddhâtman in moksha if they would only take the trouble to analyse the idea underlying the notion of absorption. It is no use trying to smother the voice of intellect when it proclaims that two or more existing realities, or individuals, can never be pressed into one; and neither reason nor analogy can ever be found to support the thesis of absolute merger in respect of simple, indivisible entities. The very illustration of the disappearance of the drop in the sea is a sufficient refutation of all such notions; for the sea is an unit only in so far as the word is concerned, not in any other respect, so that the 'individuality' of the drops constituting its volume is neither destroyed nor impaired in the least in the process of their supposed merger It is, no doubt, impossible for us to pick out any particular drop of water from the sea after once dropping it therein, but if our drop were invested with the functions of understanding and speech it would undoubtedly respond to a call from a friend on the shore.
THE PRACTICAL PATH.
The true idea underlying the analogy, then, is only that of a collection of 'drops' enjoying a common status, which is fully in agreement with the Jaina view, according to which the siddhâtmans in nirvana enjoy
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