________________
52
N. M. KANSARA
essence, like a tiny light glowing in the darkness, but slowly awakening to a higher consciousness!
SAMBODHI
No matter how long it may take the prodigal son to come to his senses and return, the light is always kept burning in the palace of his unendingly merciful Supreme Father, waiting for him. He must come home when the full measure of his karma has been paid. If he sinks down by unworthy conduct, he may come up again by suffering and good deeds. Life is full of give and take. If the giving is more than the taking, by just that much the individual rises toward a higher life. This is the unfailing law of karma, the principle of eternal balance.
It is very important fact that no individual can ever pay the debt for another. Theologians have made the terrible blunder of ignoring this fixed and immutable law of nature. They have built up their theological idea vicarious. atonement in contravention of the law of karma. If Jesus could pay the debt of the whole world by his death on the cross, then the great law of justice becomes inoperative, and the old superstition of animal and human sacrifice would stand justified! The whole misapprehension is built up on the old rule of sacrifice and substitution, which was but a trick of ancient man to try to escape the legitimate consequences of his own actions; he only deluded himself into thinking that he had escaped his karma, but as a matter of fact, he greatly added to his karmic burden. They knew they had to do something to escape the consequences of their moral debts, but they did not know who do. The whole scheme rests upon the assumption that God and the devil are running a dual empire; and the devil is in the ascendancy most of the time in this world, the Lord himself being but little more than a nominal sovereign obliged to keep up appearances under the embarrassing situation. The Christian idea of vicarious
Atonement is directly opposed to the eternal law of justice, which runs throughout nature.
Jain Education International
All men have not the opportunity to meet a Sadguru; the reason is that they have not earned that privilege. And, when they have earned the right, there is no power in the world that can keep them away from the Sadguru. There is no injustice in this thing. If some people are favoured in India, while so many good people in Europe and America have no such opportunity, it is because these people in India have earned the right. God only knows how many long and weary ages they have waited and suffered and worked, only to be born in India with but little of this world's good and even poor mental equipment, yet with hearts filled with love, ready to follow the Sadguru with no misgivings, no mental pulling back.
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
