Concept of Divinity in Jainism

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

Page 67

4. Clinging to enjoyment (upadina) depends on -
5. Craving (tanha) depends on -
6. Feeling (vedana) depends on -
7. Contact (sparsha) depends on -
8. Six sense organs (including mind) (sadayatana) de
pends on -
9. Psycho-physical organism (nama-rupa) depends on - 10. Consciousness (vinnana) depends on -
11. Karmic formation (sankhara) depends on -
12. Ignorance (avijja)
Ignorance, According to Sutta-Pitaka, is want of knowledge concerning four noble truths; and according to the Abhidhamma-Pitaka; concerning eight fold path of truth.30 Kenneth K. Inada observes "Ignorance means ontological ignorance and only in this basic sense does the concept of Pratityasamutpada take on significance as a structural analysis of the elements at play in the ontological flow on man's nature.31 Thus, ignorance leads the link of samsara-chakara and is an obstacle to divinity.
Third Noble Truth - Cessation of Suffering
The cessation of suffering consists in utter fading away of attention of that very Tanha. Nirodha, cessation of suffering, is that state of one in which consciousness transcends the sphere of senses and their objects. 32 It renders samsara eternally. The blessed one Buddha addressed: "Now this, monks; is the noble truth of cessation of pain, cessation without a remainder of craving, the abandonment, for release, non-attachment."33 He, who overcomes the tanha, suffering fall off him like a water drop from a lotus leaf. It is the complete separation from and destruction of this very craving, for the sake of renunciation, liberation, Nibbana (divinity).
THE CONCEPT OF DIVINITY IN JAINISM
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