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Notes and References
Jains are the followers of Jainism. Like Hindus and Buddhists, they believe in the goal of kevalya (same as moksha or nirvana - see: Preface, footnote 4), but do not believe in the existence of God as creator or ruler. See: Chapter 3 - Jainism and Jain Goal of Life. Vaishnavas are Hindus, who worship the Vishnu deity. Gandhi, M. K., An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1927, p. 114. Also see: Government of India, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 39. New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Navajivan Trust, 1958-84.
Moksha is a Hindu spiritual term, which means freedom from the sense pleasures and equanimity toward joys and sufferings while living and ultimately liberation from the cycles of birth and death. Moksha also indicates a state of self-realization, i.e. full knowledge of the soul and one primarily situated in the soul-state. The concept of moksha is somewhat different in Buddhism and Jainism (respectively as nirvana and kevalya), but essentially is not any different. See: Bhaktivedanta, A. C., BhagavadGita As It Is. Los Angeles: International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 1986; Radhakrishnan, S. and C. A. Moore, A Source Book in India Philosophy. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1957; and Rice, Edward, Eastern Definitions. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1978.
Gandhi devoted one chapter in his autobiography to Rajchandra. He also mentioned him in some of his other writing and speeches.
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