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Concept of God in Jainism
Schleiermaker have proved God as a creator. They also believe that "God is a highest being from all other beings.... He has brought the Universe into being at a certain moment, governs it according to plan, directs it towards an end, interferes with its ordinary process.... and will bring it to consummation in a final catastrophe." In Upaniṣads and Vedantic tradition God has been defined as Sākṣi or mere preceiver who is not effected by his own creation, and by the passage of time Polytheism of Vedic religion culminated in Monotheism or monistic philosophy like Advaita Vedānta.
Jainism holds neither God as a creator nor a sāksi (perceiver). The concept of God in Jainism denotes the highest state of existence of Jīvā or soul. When a soul gets itself free from all karmas (deeds), it attains perfect divinity. A soul is itself God but it is mundane till it is covered by the encrustations of the karmas, no sooner it becomes free form all types of karma it gets transformed in its real nature, infinite knowledge, infinite perception and infinite power. This purified self is called as Paramātmā or God2 in Jainism. Once it returns to its real nature it never becomes defiled or effected by karmas. Just as a nugget or gold ore excavated from a mine is impure but once it goes through the process of purification it can not be converted again as impure3
In Jainism the soul has been defined generally of two types
1. Baddha or mundane soul
2. Mukta or liberated soul
but in latter part of Jaina literature the soul exists in three different
forms
1. Bahirātmā [External soul]
2. Antarātmā [Inner soul]
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3. Paramātmā [supreme soul]
Bahirätmā or external soul
This soul is concerned with the external world. It enjoys the gross through its senses.
Antarātmā or inner soul The soul which realises the futility of the material world is Antarātmā.
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