________________
88
TIRTHANKARA MAHAVIRA AND HIS SARVODAYA TIRTHA
for which the adjectives are attributed to him goal is purified, the Arhantas cannot bestow either liberation."59
Till one's own heaven or
"By repeating the names of the Arhantas and worshipping them, people intend to destroy evils and acquire useful things or have a cure or amass wealth. But they forget that the Arhantas are not the master of good and evil which appear only when some past karma comes up As the devotion to the Arhantas sometimes helps the fructification of previous sin, so this has at times been looked upon as the cause of the attainment of the coveted goal; but if somebody starts from the beginning to show devotion with a worldly gain in view, well, his very intention is sinful When he is adding fresh sins through hankerings and desires, how can his past sins come up for the purpose of his exit."60
The second adjective of a true god is that he is omniscient. One who knows all things and all categories fully in all the three worlds and three periods of time, alongwith non-space or the sky, is omniscient 61 In the universe, there is an infinite number of objects, each object has infinite qualities and each quality has an infinite number of categories spread over the three periods of time The omniscient personality knows all these objects, qualities and categories fully and at a time without the help of the sense organs. All that has happened in the past, all that happens in the present and all that is going to happen in the future are distinctly known to him as if they are currently happening
'One who knows all is omniscient' Although this doctrine is commonly accepted, still for want of sufficient knowledge of, and faith in, him, people become restless. As it is said, 'What the omniscient personality with supreme detachment has seen and known will take place; it cannot be otherwise. So there is no point in getting restless.'
59 Ibid., 221.
60 Mokşamarga Prakasaka, p 222.
61 sarvadravyaparyaye şu kevalasya, Tattvartha Sutra, 1/29.