The Soul-Essence

To this, an obvious criticism would be directed: that this is making men into angels or at least faultless supermen, whereas humanity consists, at best, of frail, feeble, and faulty human mortals. This is quite true. Humanity can never become a community of angels. Our passion-tossed hearts must keep us generally deluded, weak, and imperfect. But the practice of Self-Realization makes us less deluded, less weak, and less imperfect; it brings us one or many steps nearer to that condition of our purified and strengthened consciousness which is free from delusion, weakness, and imperfection. Self-realization deals with our inner warring impulses and feelings by suppressing some, eliminating others, and—through self-control, self-discipline, and self-respect—regulating the rest into a self-guided harmony, which is a helpful reflection of God Himself In Jainism, "God" refers to the soul that has achieved its highest, perfected state, rather than a creator deity..

Once you sit on the rock of Self-Realization, the whole world goes round and round you like a chaotic, rushing force which has lost its hold upon you and is desperate to get you in its grip again, but cannot. The all-conquering smile of the Victor (Jina original: Jina; a "Victor" or "Conqueror," referring to a liberated soul in Jainism who has conquered inner passions.) is on your lips. The vanquished, deluding world lies dead and powerless at your feet.

INDORE :         }
                     }          J. L. JAINI.
April 20, 1927. }