________________
SEPARATION OF SPIRIT AND MATTER
1592
rendered unmanifest in the case of the unredeemed one by the intimacy of the association with matter, so that it is neither whole nor divine in any sense. But by the practising of asceticism it will become: holy (from a root implying wholeness) and, therefore, whole and entire, to use the language of the Epistle of St. James, and shall, then be wanting in nothing.
Imitation of God, that is to say, of the Ideal, is necessary for the attainment of Perfection. According to Philo Judæus (20 B.C.. to 30 A.D.), the prophetic mind, by which term he understands purest intelligence, when it has been initiated in divine things and is inspired resembles unity, and “he who cleaves to the nature of unity is said to have approached God with the intimacy as it were of a kinsman." The reason of this may be given in Philo's own words :
"l'or, abandoning all mortal types, he is transferred to the divine type so. that he becomes akin to God and truly divine "-(Philo's Contribution to Religion, by H. A. A. Kennedy, p. 233).
What happens to such a one who is transferred into the divine type ? Does he have to die and remain in subjection to the law of Transmigration ? No, there is an end to his sufferings and wanderings, for he has become fully divine as a God. Philo, too, says (Ibid., p. 138) :
"... the good man does not die, but departs, that it might declare the inextinguishable and immortal nature of the fully purified soul, which shall experience a departure from this world to heaven, not that dissolution and destruction hich death appears to bring."
How can there be subjection to death in the case of a fully purified Soul, who has completely separated Himself from matterand who is established, unshakably, in His own divine Unity, i.e., the simplicity of Spiritual nature ? Immortality is acquired, not as a gift from an outside patron, but arises only because pure Spirit is a simple and therefore indestructible substance.
But is there no simpler and less trying method of reaching the divine unity for the benefit of the easy-chair speculators of our day? Can we not go on living and enjoying ourselves, let us say
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
