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

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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM”
liberation the soul has no consciousness, because its conditions, such as relations of sense to object, are absent. There are many souls as there are individuals. The souls are subject to bondage and can also obtain liberation.55
Jain thinker's views that soul is said to be equal in extent to its own body it occupies, whereas Naiyāyikas, the Vaišeșikas, the Sāṁkhyas, and the Mīmāṁsakas who hold that the soul is omnipresent like ether. They believe in the existence of many souls but do not admit that they are equal in the extent to their own bodies. According to them all souls are all-pervasive, i.e.; present everywhere. To admit a soul to be equal in extent to its own body is a unique conception of the Jaina. The doctrine which advocates the vibhutva of ātman (a soul is everywhere) is contrary to the Jaina concept of soul. A soul is not all-pervasive, because its qualities are not found everywhere; that thing whose qualities are not found everywhere is not all-pervasive. The point is that the measure of soul, as per Jaina, is only as much as that of body it occupies, that is there is no soul outside the body it occupies, for its attributes are found only in that body an important thing, Jaina point out that since all other schools of thought hold that ātmans are many and if each of them is Vibhu (all-pervasive) also, as they believe, then it would result in interpretation of ātmans and each of them would enter the ātman of God Himself, or each would thereby become a creator, for they believe that God is the creator of universe."
Jainism is the only school of Indian philosophy, which holds that ātman is body-size. The only other school which hold an analogous, though not the same doctrine, is the school of Rāmānuja
5Dr. Chatterjee and Dr. Dutta, “An Introduction to Indian Philosophy”, 1984, P-336, Sloka-vārtika, (ātmavāda), Šāstra-dipikā, ātmavāda, P-119 Mohan Lal Mehta, “Jaina Philosophy: An Introduction", 1988,P-100