File:Tirthankara.PNG

Tirthankara
Tirthankara is a savior and spiritual teacher of the dharma (righteous path). This signifies the founder of a tirtha, which is a fordable passage across the sea of interminable births and deaths, the Samsara. After understanding the true nature of the self or soul, the Tirthankara attains omniscience.After understanding the true nature of the self or soul, the Tirthankara attains omniscience and provides a bridge for others to follow the new teacher from Samsara to moksha (liberation). One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever. The human body is like a junction. With sword in hand, intelligent men cut through the binding knots of reactionary work by remembering the Personality of Godhead. Life's desires should never direct toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation since a human meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one's works. As soon as irrevocable loving service established in the heart, the effects of nature's modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire, and hankering, disappear from the heart.