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A PEEP BEHIND THE VEIL OF KARMA
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force which can eliminate them from the consciousness of the soul can be no other than its own will. No outside agency can, therefore, do anything for the soul except to point out that the power which can bring about its emancipation is latent within itself. It is for this reason that Jainas do not consider any one entitled to worship except those Perfect Ones who taught the Truth and the Right Path.
But how is the will to be exerted ? Jainism points out that three things have to be acquired by the soul to accomplish its redemption. These are :
1. Right Faith without which, as we saw in our analysis of the emotion of pure joy, bliss cannot come into manifestation.
2. Right Knowledge, which would enable it to understand that its own nature is more blissful than that of anything else in the world, and would thus create a longing in the mind for its realization, and
3. Right Conduct, which really means the exertion of will in the right direction.
This right direction means nothing more or less than the path which the Tirthamkaras trod and pointed out to their followers. It is the path which leads away from desires ; it is the road to bliss ! Renunciation of the objects of desire, the refusal to gratify the senses, the determination to turn the back resolutely on the attachments of the world, is what Right Conduct implies. As the entertainment of desires is the cause of the assimilation of the karma pudgala in the soul, so is the renunciation of desire the means to its elimination. And in proportion to the degree in which the will gather's strength to renounce the sense-attractions, does the inner glory or the soul shine forth through its inner bodies or sheaths, till rising higher and higher in respect of spirituality, it stands revealed as the all-knowing, all-perceiving, Sachchidananda, that is, the Holy Trinity of Existence, Knowledge and Bliss.
Such, Sisters and Brethren, is the noble teaching of our sublime Faith. But it seems to me that all other rational religions contain, more or less, the same teaching. Lest some one carry away a wrong idea of the position of other creeds, I would like to add that, in my humble opinion, there is no ancient religion which is not grounded
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