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 291

JAINA VIEW OF GOD COMPARED WITH ......
275
terms of ecstatic description which they apply to Arhat-ship as the goal of the excellent way and to Nirvāṇa as one aspect of it.”**
Buddhism in its original form does not concern itself with the problem of God. The Buddha's anti-theistic arguments are summarized by Aśvaghoșa.“ If the world has been made by Isvara, there should be no change or destruction no such thing as sorrow and calamity, right or wrong; if he is the maker, the world should obey him; if he acts with a purpose; he should not be called perfect; and if he acts without a purpose, he should be called either a lunatic or a baby. 46
According to the later Vaibhāșikas, God is unreal. If things were his creation they would come into being at once. But in reality the effect comes into being following an evolutionary process. From the seed grows the sprout. From the sprout the leaves, after leaves grows the stem and branches, then appears the flower and then fruits. Again, God cannot be described as creator since the effect is conditioned by space and time. In Mahāyāna, Nāgārjuna denies the possibility of the world being created by God. Šāntideva in his Bodhicaryāvatāra" refuses to admit any omniscient and omnipotent God as creator and his polemics are directed against the theism of the later Nyāya-Vaiseșikas.
Mr. G.R. Meads tried to save Buddhism from charged of propounding a theory of annihilation and quotes a passage by Col. Olcott sanctioned by the High Priest of Ceylon, that although soul according to Buddhism is impermanent and changeable, still there is in man the permanent part called spirit. He says “Buddhism does not deny imperishable nature of an ultimate spiritual reality in man, of a true transcendental subject, of an immoral changeless self. 8” Mr. V. R. Gandhi commented on this that self or transcendental subject has been known in all Indian philosophy by the name ātmā or Brahma.
44 VRG, “The systems of Indian Philosophy", P-114 - Buddhacarita, XVI.18 and Jain philosophy, Historical out line, P-119 40 Jain philosophy, Historical out line, P-119
47 Ibid
48 Ibid, P-115