Concept of Divinity in Jainism

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

Page 48

vine Being, that one can be liberated from the wheel of samsara. Thus, Divinity in Nyaya system is an operative cause as well as dispenser of action and supreme arbiter of punya and paap, otherwise happiness and sufferings.
2. Vaisheshika System :
Vaisheshika system was propounded by Kanada. The Nyaya and Vaisheshika systems are very much allied. Vaisheshika system believes in universal moral law of karma. It is often said "As you sow, so you reap". Thus, every want must have its cause. One is happy due to punya and have suffering due to paap. The Vaisheshika idea of divine being, as wholly transcendent and separate from man and the world, is not favoured for a deeply religious view of life and the genuine religious consciousness of communion with God. 104 Gopikamohan Bhattacarya observes that it is not any intelligent author who creates this universe, but it is an omniscient God who is at the back of creation.105
3. Sankhya System :
Sankhya philosophy, propounded by a great sage Kapila, admits the dualistic realism i.e., purusha and prakriti. There is a controversy regarding the concept of divinity in Sankhya. The classical interpreters of Sankhya philosophy argue this system as an atheism. They argue that there is no God because no proof of its existence is available.106 They assert that the merits and demerits of an individual do not come from the God but these are affects of their own individual deeds. 107 But, it believes that liberated beings are glorified and possess some super natural pow108 Thus according to some interpreters there is no God who creates and rules the activities of the world.109 Some interpreters believe in the existence of God.110 God, Divinity, is considered as all knower (Omniscient) and all powerful (Omnipotent).111 Brahma, Prajapatya, Indra, Gandharva, Yaksha, Rakshasa and Paishacha are the eight varieties of the divine beings, according to this section of interpreters.112
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THE CONCEPT OF DIVINITY IN JAINISM