________________
62
RIŞABHA DEVA
with exactly the same attributes as the Tirthamkaras. But They differ from the latter in this that teaching is not Their mission in life in the same way as it is that of the Tirthamkaras, and therefore They are not surrounded by the Pomp with which devas and men surround the latter.
The Siddhas are also referred to both in the Jewish and the Christian Apocrypha. In the former it is said:
“And I Esdras saw upon the mount Sion a great inultitude whom I could pot number, and they all praised the lord with songs. And in the midst of them there was a young man of high stature, taller than all the rest and upon every one of their heads he set crowns, and was more exalted; whereat I marvelled greatly. So I asked the angel, and said, What are these, iny lord: He answered and said unto me, These be they that have put off mortal clothing, and put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God: now are they crowned, and receive palmas. Then said I unto the angel, What young man is he that settetl crowns upon them, and giveth them palms in their hands ? So he answered and said unto me, It is the son of God, whom they have confessed in the world." -II Esdras, Chap. II.
. Briefly the explanation of the above halfplain half-mystic account is this: by following the Ideal (in Jewish and Christian terminology, the Son of God) souls are crowned into Divinity, * and the number of Those that have freed and
