________________
CHAPTER-V
145
of keeping the worldly phenomena running". So as some man himself teaches his sons with ill intention and when they start behaving in that fashion then he beats them; how would then such a father be called good? Similarly, if Brahma etc. by his passionate form of activity causes his own creation to indulge in untoward acts and when they do so then why he places them in the hell etc.? In the scriptures, the consequence of these dispositions is described as getting birth in hell etc.; so, how can such a God be believed to be
good?
And you have stated that the motive of God is to protect the devotees and punish the cruels. Here we ask you that the cruels who torture the devotees were created by the desire of God, or without his desire? If they were created by God's desire then tell us as to how such a master be called good who firstly gets his own subordinates beaten by others and later on beats those beaters? Similarly, how such a God be called good who himself willingly causes his devotees to be afflicted by the cruels and then he starts killing those curels by incarnating (into embodied form)?
If you will say that the cruels got created without his desire then either the God might not be having such a foresight that these cruels will torture his devotees or earlier he might not be having such sort of power that this should not be allowed to happen. Further, we ask him-'If God incarnated for the purpose of performing such activity, so, did he possess such power without incarnating or not? If he was possessing such power, why did then he incarnate? And if he did not possess such power then what was the cause of obtaining such power later on?
Then he says- 'How would the glory (importance) of God be reflected without doing so? Then we tell him- “Protecting one's followers and punishing opponents for establishing one's glory is nothing but attachment-aversion passions (Raag & Dwesha) and Raag-Dwesha is the characteristic of the mundane being (Sansari. Jiva). If God also is found having Raag-dwesha then why to preach the other Jivas for effectuatingequanimity by quitting Raag-Dwesha? Moreover, as he thought to act according to Raag-Dwesha, so no work is accomplished without consumption of some more or less time; then during that period God would remain restless. If the king himself
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org