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 159

JAINA CONCEPT OF GOD IN JAINA THEISM
All forms of religions, which have appeared on earth, assume the fundamental need of human heart, a power above him on which he could depend. The gods of Vedic religion are the reflection of growing wants and needs, that they would hear man's prayer, accept their sacrifices. So Vedic seers searched a nameless God, who alone could satisfy the restless craving of the human hears and the skeptic mind.
It is of course clearly understood by all Hindus that the vast host of devas no more obscures the unity of Isvara, (God), in his triple form as Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, than do the vast host of men, animals, plants and minerals. As said in the śruti: "Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, they call Him, and He is golden-feathered (suparno Garutman). Of what is one, sages speak as manifold; they call him Agni, Yama, Mātarisvān
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Manusmrti said: 'All the gods are even the self; all rests on the self. Some call him Agni, others Manu, (others) Prajapati, Some, Indra, others Life-breath, others the eternal Brahman.
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But the devas, gods, have their own place in nature, as the ministers of the will of Isvara (God), ruling, protecting, adjusting, guiding with intelligence and power for greater than human but still limited.
Sometimes a man wins the favours of a deva by some service done in this or previous birth, then all his efforts proper, and he
32 Indraṁmitramvaruṇagnimāhurathodivyaḥsasuparṇogarütmān/ Ekam sad viprāḥbahudhāvadanti
Agnimyamaṁmātariśvānamāhuḥ// Rgveda, I. 164. 46
33 Atmaïvadevatāḥsarvaḥsarvamātmanyavasthitam,
Manusmrti-12.19, P .46
34 Etamekevaḍnyāgnimanaumanyeprajāpatim, Indrameke 'pareprāṇamapare brahma śāśvatam// Manusmrti, XII. 23