Concept of Divinity in Jainism

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

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self-sufficient, ever pure, intelligent and pure knowledge, absolute bliss. 29
The individual self while losing nama and rupa becomes united with Brahman, the supreme Divinity, as the rivers losing the names and forms disappear in the sea. As it has been stated in the Mundaka Upanishad, “As the flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their name and their form, thus a wise man, free from name and form, goes to the divine person, who is greater than the great”. 130 Brahman is Reality; the world is ultimately false; and the individual self (atman) is non-different from Brahman.31 For Shankara, Brahman is quite different from existing world but atman is the same as Brahman. The liberated self, unifies with the Brahman and attains the attribute of supreme Divinity. From the Empirical Point, God is Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresence, Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer. According to this view, he is possessed of the excellent attributes (Saguna).132 Thus, he is saguna Brahman. Ishwara is the ultimate. 133
To sum up, Surendranath Battacharya states134, To be Brahman is not the extinction of the individual, rather it is the expansion of one's individuality into the infinitude of Brahman. The jiva is always Brahman during bondage, the Upanishads screen this truth: “In the state of freedom it shines forth as Brahman -- as what it always is; nothing new happens”.
II. Vishishta - Advaita Philosophy of Ramanuja: Vishishta Advaita (one ultimate as qualified) is the philosophical interpretation of Acharya Ramanuja, - a great Vaishnava philosopher. Brahman is the absolute reality which includes within itself matter and qualities as its integral parts. He creates, controls, sustains and destroys the world. He has a special divine body (aprakrita dehavishishta). Ramanuja refutes Shankara’s conception of nirguna Brahman as “a pure unqualified existence”.
Brahman is the only absolute, independent and ultimate reality which pervades the whole world.135 Material objects and
THE CONCEPT OF DIVINITY IN JAINISM