read the Praty[=a]khy[=a]na (an old P[=u]rva,
gospel).[23] Further rules of prayer and practice guide him through
his day. And by following this rule he expects to obtain spiritual
'freedom' hereafter; but for his life on earth he is "without praise
or blame for this world or the next, for life or for death, having
meditation as his one pure wife" (iii. 150). He will become a god in
heaven, be reborn again on earth, and so, after eight successive
existences (the Buddhistic number), at last obtain salvation, release
(from bodies) for his eternal soul (153).

As in the Upanishads, the gods, like men, are a part of the system of
the universe. The wise man goes to them (becomes a god) only to return
to earth again. All systems thus unite hell and heaven with the
_karma_ doctrine. But in this Jain work, as in so many of the orthodox
writings, the weight is laid more on hell as a punishment than on
rebirth. Probably the first Jains did not acknowledge gods at all, for
it is an early rule with them not to say 'God rains,' or use any such
expression, but to say 'the cloud rains'; and in other ways they avoid
to employ a terminology which admits even implicitly the existence of
divinities. Yet do they use a god not infrequently as an agent of
glorification of Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, saying in later writings that Indra
transformed himself, to do the Teacher honor; and often they speak of
the gods and goddesses as if these were regarded as spirits. Demons
and inferior beings are also utilized in the same way, as when it is
said that at the Teacher's birth the demons (spirits) showered gold
upon the town.

The religious orders of the Cvet[=a]mbara sect contained nuns as well
as monks, although, as we have said, women are not esteemed very
favorably: "The world is greatly troubled by women. People say that
women are vessels of pleasure. But this leads them to pain, to
delusion, to death, to hell, to birth as hell-beings or brute-beasts."
Such is the decision in the [=A]e[=a]r[=a]nga S[=u]tra, or book of
usages for the Jain monk and nun. From the same work we extract a few
rules to illustrate the practices of the Jains. This literature is the
most tedious in the world, and to give the gist of the heretic
law-maker's manual will suffice.

Asceticism should be practiced by monk and nun, if possible. But if
one finds that he cannot resist his passions, or is disabled and
cannot endure austerities, he may commit suicide; although this
relea