Jains Today in World

SR No.: 001794
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Pirre Paul AMIEL
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 2008
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, History, Religion, E000, & E005
File Size: 24 MB

Page 79

48 : JAINS TODAY IN THE WORLD emigrated here, to show their support, to create Jain "āśrama”, to teach and promote Jain tenets outside India.
2. Their other revered beings
We have already spoken of the "Siddhaloka” which the Jains place above the universe, where liberated souls dwell forever in complete purity and bliss. The universe itself is constituted of the upper-world or heavens (ürdhva-loka), the middle-world, o (madhya-loka) and the lower world or hell (adho-loka).
The heavenly beings “deva” and “devi" (gods and goddesses) stay in the upper-world whose heavens are named in chapter 4 of the “Tattvārtha-sūtra”. These beings are not, according to Jain sacred scriptures, yet freed from the “saṁsāra”. They enjoy more or less ethereal pleasures but the degree of purity and perfection of their soul is determined by the amount of “karma” they have yet to get ride of. They have to be reborn in our world, one or several times, depending the heaven they are in, before attaining everlasting “mokşa”.
In the “Tattvārtha-sūtra" these beings are divided in four categories: "of the mansions”, "of the forests”, “luminous” and “of the empyrean”. We will not speak more about them, only to say that some have, according to Jain tradition, an influence on human beings, like the “luminous gods” (heavenly bodies and planets) and each adept has to keep them in mind. It is the reason why, for example, Jains call an astrologer in each important event of their life to know if it is or not an auspicious moment for it or revere some of their "gods” or "goddesses”. Some of these divinities pertain also to the Hindu pantheon. Jains revere them but they do so with a lesser degree than for the Tīrthankara. Their number and their kinds of influences change according to the obedience.