Concept of Divinity in Jainism

Author(s): P Ajay Kothari
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 38

process of transfer has an obvious advantage : even a man may be affected by sin without action of his own, so he can transfer sin or even a good deed to others, and so get rid not merely of sins which have been passed on to him, but also of sins which he himself has committed. 36 They are worshipped for boons to fulfil desire and hence are looked upon as Benefactors. Sri S. B. Kalyanarama Bhattacharia affirms the faith that the rewards for obeying divine commands will surely be conferred upon such people.37
Prof. Vardhachari observes that these personalities of the divine are indeed one Godhead only (Rig. V. 1.165.46). His manifold personalities or perfection expressed in the places of the earth, bhuh, mid-region, bhuvah and sky, stars and beyond (the parama pada), Brahma and Prajapati reveal the creative activity of the Divine and as the Vast Infinite Being. No doubt even in the Vedic hymns we come across the supreme accessibility of the gods through prayer and offering of oblations which reveals their responsiveness and goodness. Thus, we see in the personalities of the Divine, the six appellations or gunas that are ascribed as specially perceivable in addition to any infinity of adorable qualities, namely Inana, Bala, Aishvarya, Virya. Tejas and Shakti. Because of the possession of these excellent attributes, they are luminous, the divinity. 38
We find from the above that in each God we have a personality characteristic of divinity. Thus, whilst Agni, Indra, Vayu, Surya, Rudra and Ashvins etc., are really functions of the Divine, yet they are sufficiently stable in their adhibhautika nature. When the worship of the total Divine is made, not for any benefit in respect of that particular aspect of which that divinity is the governing or persuading authority, as in the sacrificial rites prescribed in the Brahmanas for worldly happiness, then that divinity becomes the door to infinity, and the meaning of the word designating that divinity has to be etymologically applied to the One Supreme Godhead, the Godhead of gods. It is in this sense that these gods, functionally presiding divinities over some par
THE CONCEPT OF ONVINITY IN JAINISM