Gommatsara Jiva-Kanda (Sacred Books of the Jainas)

I have provided this long history of the publication delay to highlight a few points:

(1) All important manuscripts must be kept with the utmost care. Risks of loss by moths or in transit must be avoided.

(2) If possible, more than one typed copy of a manuscript should exist to guard against irreplaceable loss.

(3) Once a manuscript is ready, it may be given to a Jaina periodical for serialization. It is easier to reprint it as a book later, when mistakes can be avoided and corrections made.

(4) True lovers of Jainism, both learned and wealthy, should cooperate to organize public services to accelerate the preservation and propagation of Jaina sacred books in all important languages.

Regarding the great authority and veneration of Shri Gommatasara, it is enough to say that if Tattvartha Sutra is the Jaina Bible, the Gommatasara is a brief expansion of part of that Bible, providing the path to perfection or liberation.

The path is clear and conclusive. If followed, it leads to the goal: Liberation. The goal cannot be attained without following this path.

The soul-classes, quests, and stages described in this book can be verified by anyone with the necessary time, effort, inclination, and sympathetic realization of the Word of the Omniscient—at any time, in any condition of life, in any part of the world.

To follow the path, it is not necessary to be born a Jaina or to embrace Jainism. Call yourself by whatever name you like and live your life as you have lived it until now; but if your life is in accord with Jainism—if it conforms to the type and measure of faith, knowledge, and conduct leading to the goal—you may be sure that you are a liberable being on the path to truth and freedom from the miseries of embodied existence.

You build yourself. The soul is the sole architect of its life and condition, here and hereafter. As such, believers in Jainism and those who consider and weigh Jainism in their search for truth will find this translation a valuable guide.