Concept of Divinity in Jainism

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

Page 52

individual selves are not independent realities, but are grounded in and dependent on Brahman, the Supreme Being. They are organically related to the Supreme Being and form the body of the Lord. Brahman is, therefore, not an unqualified and indeterminate reality, but a determinate and qualified being. He is both the independent absolute reality and the embodied self of the world.136 Ramanuja did not believe that this world is false (mithya) as Shankara feels.137 Further, according to Ramanuja this world cannot be unreal as it is a part of Brahman or God. Similarly, individual selves (atmans) are real and eternal like Brahman and are part of Brahman: “The individual self is a part of the highest self; as the light issuing from a luminous thing, such as fire or the sun, is a part of that body”. 138
The relation between the individual souls and Brahman is that of body and soul. It is a peculiar non-dual relation which Ramanuja calls Vishisht-advaita. It is the unique relation of inner connection and dependence of the souls on God. C.D. Sharma explains the meaning of Vishishtadvaita as “Identity-in-andthrough and because-of difference or identity-as-qualified-by-difference”. 139 Ramanuja did not believe in the conception of bhedabheda (identity-cum-difference) and advocated the view of Vishishtadvaita. Ramanuja holds that liberated soul only becomes similar to Brahman but not identical with Brahman as Shankara has held. The Bhagavad-Gita also supports the view of Ramanuja that those who have acquired the wisdom, become similar to Brahman.140 God, supreme Divinity, is the object of worship to attain emancipation, Moksha through his mercy.
III. Dvaita Philosophy of Madhva : Madhvacharya, a Vaishnava thinker, developed a system of dualistic theism out of the teachings of the Upanishads and the Vedanta. Madhvacarya, in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya says that there are two ultimate realities (dvaita), the absolute which is independent of everything else, and the relative which is completely dependent on the abso
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THE CONCEPT OF DIVINITY IN JAINISM