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GLIMPSES ALONG LIFE'S JOURNEY
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3. Lalitanga
Jainism shows heavens (as also hells) to be but separate regions of the universe. The one is no more a pleasure garden kept by a supreme kinglike god, than the other is a prison-Siberia of a divine cæsar or czar. Conditions of existence are very very pleasant in the heavens; but the hells are constituted by those regions which are the reverse of heavens.
C
Souls take birth in heavens (also in hells) as they do here; but there is no conception to be undergone. People rise up from a bed' in the heavens; they drop down from a circular bell-like orifice in hells. Their growth is accomplished almost at once-in less than eight and forty minutes -and the bodies are indestructible, that is, there is no premature death in either heavens or hells. No doubt, you can cut up or divide the body in either place, but it is re-formed immediately; only the pain is felt and there is no permanent mutilation or deprivation of an organ or limb. The residents of heavens possess the outer bodies of a type that is bright and resplendent, and that readily obeys the impulses of the owner's will. It can become big or small, light or heavy, at will; it can pass through space at a rate of speed that will put the motion of light to shame. All the residents of heavens are endowed with clairvoy
