He represents the perfection of humanity, the typical man, who has conquered self and attained a condition so perfect that he not only ceases to act, but is able to extinguish the power of former acts; a human being who is released from the obligation of further transmigration, and looks forward to death as the absolute extinction of personal existence. But he is also more than this. He is a being who by virtue of the perfection of his self-mortification (_tapas_) has acquired the perfection of knowledge, and therefore the right to be a supreme leader and teacher of mankind. He claims far more complete authority and infallibility than the most arrogant Roman Pontiff. He is in his own solitary person an absolutely independent and infallible guide to salvation. Hence he is commonly called a _T[=i]rthan-kara_, or one who constitutes a T[=i]rtha[8]--that is to say, a kind of passage or medium through which bliss may be attained--a kind of ford or bridge leading over the river of life to the elysium of final emancipation. Other names for him are _Arhat_, "venerable;" _Sarva-jna_, "omniscient;" _Bhagavat_, "lord." A Buddha with the Buddhists is a very similar personage. He is a self-conqueror and self-mortifier (_tapasv[=i]_), like the Jina, and is besides a supreme guide to salvation; but he has achieved his position of Buddhahood more by the perfection of his meditation (_yoga, sam[=a]dhi_) than by the completeness of his self-restraint and austerities. Both Jainas and Buddhists--but especially Jainas--believe in the existence of gods and demons, and spiritual beings of all kinds, whom they often designate by names similar to those used by the Hind[=u]s. These may possess vast supernatural and extra-mundane powers in different degrees and kinds, which they are capable of exerting for the benefit or injury of mankind; but they are inferior in position to the Jina or Buddha. They are merely powerful beings--temporary rulers in temporary heavens and hells. They may be very formidable and worthy of propitiation, but they are imperfect. They are liable to pass through other stages of existence, or even to be born again in mundane forms, until they are finally extinguished by the same law of dissolution as the rest of the universe.