Jainism and the Belief in God or Supreme Self

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Jainism And The Belief In God or Supreme Self

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by Jayaram VOne of the interesting features of Indian religious traditions isthat one can be atheistic and yet religious a concept that is soalien to the western world that it is too difficult for many brought

up in the traditional environment to accept such a notion assensible. In Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism belief in God is not aprerequisite to practice religion. What is more important ispersonal salvation through righteous conduct and assiduous practiceof the teachings left behind by enlightened masters. Hinduism is not

an atheistic religion, but offers a wide range of choices tofollowers to test their beliefs. In Hinduism also, belief in God is

not an essential prerequisite for achieving salvation, though adesirable one. God is a huge enigma which no one can truly fathom.Students of modern science know how difficult it is to understandthe origin and nature of material universe. If we have that muchdifficulty with the material universe imagine, the extent of theproblem we have with knowing the spiritual universe through thelimitations of our senses and our minds. Religious aspirationbegins with a person's inborn inclination, according to his or herprevious karma, leading ultimately through self effort to an inneropening in which Truth is perceived or experienced beyond thebarriers of conditioned mind and limitations of scriptural ortemporal authority. Religion is therefore a means for selfexploration to arrive at Truth. It is not some authoritarian

ecclesial dogma that suspends free enquiry and demands unconditional surrender to a scriptural injunction or messianic teaching under the

weight of blasphemy or fear of persecution. In all the Indianreligions, knowledge gained through personal experience is morevalid than knowledge gained through some scripture or teaching.Buddhism and Jainism deny the very existence of God as an absoluteand eternal entity. They do not acknowledge a creator behind theworld in which we live. In Buddhism, any discussion about God isregarded as futile because such a deliberation is of little value in

the liberation of an individual. It would not lead to mitigation of

human suffering or liberation of the individual. What matters mostis personal effort and the sincerity with which the Eightfold pathis practiced. The Buddha advised his disciples to remain in the here

and now, mindful of their immediate perceptible world, to know thetrue nature of their existence and find suitable remedies to theproblem of their suffering. If Buddhism does not care to confirm ordeny the existence of God, leaving the matter rather inconclusiveand unanswered, Jainism makes its stand very clear by emphaticallydenying the existence of God as a universal and absolute Self



responsible for creation, leaving no scope whatsoever for ambiguityon the subject.Paradoxical as it may sound, although Jainism does not believe inthe existence of universal Supreme Self, it may be wrong if wecategorize as atheistic. Jainism may say God has not created theuniverse, but it does say that the souls are divine and eternal. Itbelieves in the sanctity of the worlds by finding divine soulseverywhere, having the potential to reach their highest state offreedom, through their individual effort. For Jains God and divinity

are not synonymous. A world devoid of God can still be divine andeternal. They perceive divinity or God nature in the sanctity ofentire existence and in the eternal, individual souls who areintrinsically divine, having the ability to be according to theirchoices and actions. The world and the soul are permanent realitieswhich cannot be denied. According to the Akaranga Sutra, "He whodenies the world (of fire-bodies), denies the self; and he whodenies the self, denies the world (of fire-bodies)."So in Jainism God is replaced by individual souls or jivas, who areeternal, uncreated and indestructible, who inhabit the universewhich is also uncreated and indestructible, subject to the movementof repetitive time cycles stretching over millions of years in which

the souls pass through alternating phases of moral decline followed

by spiritual recovery, just as mechanically and repetitively the day is followed by night and the night by day. The God of Jainism is not

a boon giver or a provider of grace, but an ideal state of eternalpurity and blissful consciousness, to which humanity can aspirethrough renunciation, intense self effort and purification. Jainsaim to achieve the state of divinity not for the love of God or tobe with God or become God because He is higher and superior, but for

the sake of virtue, purity and the need to escape from theexistential suffering to regain the soul's lost freedom. In short in

Jainism, there is no place for bhakti.It is true that at some period in history the worship of LordKrishna found its way into Jainism and Arishtanemi, the 22ndthirthankara, was linked to Lord Krishna. As a result, some Jainsbegan worshipping Lord Krishna in a devotional way, leading to theformation of a community of Vaishnava Jains. However thisdevelopment was due to the influence of Hinduism and not a true Jain

tradition. The Mahapurana declares that one should reject allnotions of some God creating this world. It questions, " If Godcreated this world, where was He before creation and where is He now

and how can an immaterial God create a material world?" It goes on

to conclude, "Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is,without a beginning and without an end... Uncreated andindestructible, it endures under the compulsions of its own nature,divided into three sections- hell, earth and heaven."Though the followers of Jainism do not acknowledge the presence ofGod, they acknowledge the existence of higher beings called arhatsin heaven and also some gods who are embodied souls but with greater

freedom and high degree of knowledge and intelligence. The arhats do



not take any interest in the affairs of the world. They arecompletely indifferent to what goes on here. The followers ofJainism worship these arhats not because they want to gain somefavors from them, but because the very act of worshipping themconstitutes a good karma and leads to reduction in the inflow ofkarmic material. The gods on the other hand keep a watch on theactivities of the world. They respond to our requests and sincereprayers and help us in our good deeds. Many of them have similarnames as the gods of Hinduism but differ in respect of their statusand potency. They are not aspects of Supreme Self but individualsouls who have reached a higher state of existence through theirgood deeds.Suggested Further Reading

Buddhism and the concept of anattaThe Buddha on GodGod and Self and Their Relationship in HinduismThe Hindu Theories of CreationThe relationship between God and soul

Wednesday , September 21, 2011

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Jainism and the Belief in God or Supreme Self