Jainism a Theistic Philosophy

SR No.: 006918
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishna A Gosavi
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 2012
Total Pages: 358
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 6 MB

Page 157

JAINA CONCEPT OF GOD IN JAINA THEISM
141
As the time passed by, it was seen that in Rgveda, names of goddesses, as Ușas, Aditi, Sarasvatī, Vāk, Aranyani, etc, appeared and was added to the list of 333 gods and goddesses. Philosophers and Rșis who were intellectuals, got concerned of the crowding of gods and goddesses, and concept of viśvedevāḥ or pantheon evolved. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan said "This tendency at systematization had its natural end in monotheism, which is simpler and more logical than the anarchy of a crowd of gods and goddesses thwarting each other.”:28
The implicit demand of the religious consciousness for one supreme God made itself manifest in what is characterized as henotheism (belief in one only God) of the Veda. It is, according to Max Muller, who coined the term, the worshipping of each divinity in turn, as if it were the greatest and even the only God. Prof. C. D. Sharma” refuted Max Muller's interpretation of henotheism of the Vedas; because Vedic Aryans regarded any god they were praising as the most supreme and the only God. Dr. Sharma remarked: 'If this western interpretation is taken literally and in its entirety, we have no hesitation in saying that it is based on an ignorance of the Vedic literature. Neither polytheism nor henotheism nor even monotheism can be taken as the keynote of the early Vedic philosophy. The root fallacy in western interpretation lies in the mistaken belief that the Vedic seers were simply inspired by primitive wonder and awe towards the force of nature. On the other extreme is the orthodox view that the Vedas are authorless and eternal, which too cannot be philosophically sustained. The correct position seems to us to be that the Vedic sages were greatly intellectual and intensely spiritual personages who in their mystic moments came face to face with Reality and this mystic experience, this direct intuitive spiritual insight overflew in literature as the Vedic hymns. Further he said: instead of taking the trouble of coining the word 'henotheism', Max Muller could have simply said
28 Indian Philosophy Vol. 1 p-90 29 Dr. C.D. Sharma, “A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy”, 1997,
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