Moreover, Jainism is unlike other systems of thought in that its theories of cognition, perception, and the nature of the cosmos are, to the utmost, accurate in the context of modern scientific thought and reasoning. They will bear the severest scrutiny of the intellect, and they give freedom to the individual. It ennobles the natural purity inherent in all souls, and allows one the freedom to perceive Truth as it truly is. A Jina is omniscient and has realized the soul's innate qualities of Infinite Knowledge, Perception, Energy, and Bliss. The Jains refer to the Jina as God.
Time rolls along in an eternal cycle of rise and decline.
During every declining era are born twenty-four persons quite different from their contemporary societies. Upon realizing the nature of suffering, the cycle of misery, and the path to liberation from it, those twenty-four individuals renounce all ties to the world, mental and material. Those twenty-four, human like us, blaze a path to perfection. They are apostles of Ahimsa, born for the upliftment of all living things in the three worlds. It is the ultimate goal of the Jain to follow in the footsteps of the Crossing-Makers by attaining freedom from the misery inherent in the material world while crossing the ocean of worldly existence.