World of Jainism

SR No.: 011111
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Vishvanath Pandey
Publisher: Vishvanath Pandey
Total Pages: 129
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

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84
THE ORIENT
safe, happy and quiet place for living beings is, Gautama answers thus “It is what is called Nirvana, or freedom from pain, or perfection which is in view of all, it is the safe, happy and quiet place which the great sages reach" This is what the Buddhists and the Vedantins also have to say about their conception of Nirvana and Moksha respectively. The epithets bliss (Sukham), safe (Yoga Ksemam), immortal (Amritam), etc, are used by all the systems of Indian philosophy, except by the materialists, to describe the summum bonum of life
refer
ATTITUDE TOWARDS GODJainism has been classificd under the atheistic schools of Indian Philosophy along with Buddhism and the Carvaka system The word 'nastrica' which is normally translated as atheist, does not convey the exact sense in the context of Indian philosophy As a matter of fact, the word 'atheism' is a misnomer here The word 'atheist (godless a = not theos = God)
rs, in the context of western thought in general, to a person who does not believe in the existence of God Or, an 'atheist' is a person who holds that the sentence "God exists' expresses a false proposition Atheism, therefore, refers to that system of belief in which there is no God But the word 'nastika' does not convey this sense in the context of Indian thought According to Panini, the great grammarian, the word 'nastika' refers to those persons who do not believe in the efficacy of Karma or in the possibility of rebirth And since Buddhism and Jainism both accept the theory of Karma and rebirth, they cannot be called as Nastıkaa schools of thought The belief in a personal God is not strictly adhered to here for being an astıka; for, even many orthodox schools of Indian philosophy do not subscribe to the belief in a personal God In this sense, Jainism and Buddhism are astika systems, although they are commonly understood as nastika systems This is more so because they do not accept the authority of the Vedas; and the belief in the authenticity of the Vedas or, atleast the absence of disbelief in them, is regarded obligatory for an astıka from the orthodox point of view
But, Jainism and Buddhism are atheistic systems (to use the western concept of atheism) in the sense that they do not subscribe to the belief in a personal God The concept of God is, atleast so far as Christianity and Islam are concerned, that God is the ultimate reality which is the creator and controller of the spiritual and material world He is the first cause of the world, but is causa sui Himself He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is benevolent and merciful Such a God does not exist in Jainism For that matter, no system of Indian thought, including even the so called theistic systems, has such 60 Uttaradhyayana, XXIII, 83