Concept of Divinity in Jainism

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

Page 62

THE CONCEPT OF DIVINITY IN BUDDHISM
Buddhism, an ancient religion, is a faith in the teachings of the Buddha, the awakened one. The Buddha taught the Dharma by conversation and his teachings were handed down for a long period through oral instructions imparted by his disciples to the successive generations. These conversations and teachi. gs were recorded in the Holy Tripitakas by his followers. The Tripitakas or three boxes of canonical works are (1) Vinayapitaka, (2) Suttapitaka and (3) Abhidhammapitaka in Pali language. Buddhism teaches self-help as the most effective means of cessation of sufferings and misery and attainment of perfection, divinity.
48
Divinity
It is believed "Whatsoever happiness or pain or neutral feeling a person experiences, all that is due to the creation of the Ishvara (Supreme Divine)". To this Buddha replied, "So, then owing to the creation of an Ishvara, men will become murderers, abusive, covetous, malicious, etc. Thus, for those who fall back on the creation of an Ishvara as the essential reason there is neither desire to do, nor effort to do, nor necessity to do this deed or abstain from that deed. So, then the necessity for action or inaction not being found to exist in truth and verity, the term recluse cannot reasonably be applied to yourselves, since you live in a state of bewilderment with faculties
3
THE CONCEPT OF DIVINITY IN JAINISM