The Jains agree
with the Buddhists as to the transmigration of souls, and carry
their respect for life to the still greater extent, that besides a
strainer to remove all animalculae from the water they imbibe, they
carry a broom to sweep away the insects from their path. They differ
from the Brahmins in repudiating their minor incarnations and gods,
as the following translation will serve to show: -- "A rajah, of the
name of Gondshekur, had a minister, Abhuechund, who converted him to
the Jain religion. He prohibited the worship of Vishnu, and all gifts
of cows, land, and balls of flour and rice, and would not allow any one
to carry away bones to the Ganges. One day the minister began to say,
'O great king, be pleased to listen to the judgments and explanations
of religion: Whosoever takes another's life, that other takes his life
in another world. The birth of a man after he has again come into the
world does not escape from this sin; he is born again and again, and
dies again and again. For this reason it is right for a man, who has
been born in the world, to cultivate religion.
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