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CHAPTER
VI
CONCEPT OF GOD AND OF WORSHIP
It is not unusual to hear people criticising Jainism as an atheistic religion. Such of the criticising as are followers of the Hindu theistic philosophy base their view on three grounds : The Jainas do not believe in a personal god, the authority of the Vedas and in the existence of the life beyond. It must be conceded that the Jainas do not accept the authority of the Vedas because the teachings of the Tirthankaras are opposed to the Vedic type of rituals, the sacrifices and the existence of numerous gods extolled therein. The Jainas accept rebirth and the existence of life after death.
The word Nāstika has been differently interpreted. Pāṇini's sūtra (asti nāsti disțam matīḥ) has been interpreted to mean that he who does not accept paraloka or life after death is a nāstika. According to the Nyāyakośa, a nāstika is a person who does not accept the existence of Isvara. Manu has said that he who derides the authority of the Vedas is a Nāstika (Nāstika Vedanindakaḥ). Acceptance of the authority of the Vedas does not enter into the concept of atheism. “Atheism, both by etymology and usage, is essentially a negative conception and exists only as an expression of dissent from the positive theistic beliefs. Theism is the belief that all entities in the cosmos, which are known to us through our senses or inferred by our imagination and reason, are dependent for their origination and for their continuance in existence upon the creative and causal action of an infinite and eternal Selfconsciousness and Will; and in its higher stages, it implies that
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