________________
There is no
God-the Creator.
AN EPITOME OF JAINISM. and there is no functional activity of the agent
in the manufacturing of what is formless. room for Therefore karma cannot be anterior to
soul which is but a simple and formless cogitative substance. If it is contended as a third alternative position that both the soul and karma came into existence at one and the same time, then it would lead to the difficulty of explaining which would lead whom ?-there being .no subject in relation to an object. And such being the position the soul cannot suffer under the consequences of karma which being coeternal with the soul has, like the latter also, nothing to stand for its substantial cause. We cannot hold that their Creator stands for the substantial cause as well as for the determinant cause to bring about the existence of soul and karma ; for it would involve the difficulty of explaining as to where was God, the Creator, when these were not. If it is remarked that there was neither merit nor demerit in the begining of things, save and except the soul which is of the nature of existence, consciousness and bliss, it becomes difficult again to
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