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INTRODUCTION
vii ther you travelled from the Enlightening Source. This is precisely what is to be found in the mythologies of the world to-day. Bits and fragments are to be found so disconnected and disjointed that it is almost a Herculean task to refit them into their proper shape. The true principles of the interpretation of the different mythologies and scriptures of the world have been explained in my earlier works, ' The Key of Knowledge,'' The Confluence of Opposites,' and others. If any one would study religion, as a science ought to be studied, he would not, I am confident, differ from what has been said in those books, concerning the nature of religion and the interpretation of the world's scriptures.
Full, penetrating, all-elucidating light is only to be found in Jainism. Let us, however, not misdirect ourselves on the subject, and look out in the existing records of Jainism for a complete or perfectly untampered account of the Instruction of Truth, as imparted by the first or even by the last Tirthamkara, Mahavira. Mahavira flourished something like two thousand five hundred years ago. Jainism has experienced many vicissitudes since. Bitter persecution of Jainas at the hands of the devotees and members of the rival faiths characterized many centuries of the Jaina history in the past. Jaina Scriptures
