Ethnicity and Religious Heritage

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: T U Mehta

Page 30

Jainism - A Goddess Creativity
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to Christianity. The redumption of every individual according to this view lies in offering sincere repentance and prayers to be relieved of sins.
There are other philosophers who are more sophisticated in their explanation about the existance of the Divine. There are two principal schools of thought. One is ontolgical and the other is cosmological. As will be seen hereafter both these schools come to the conclusion that the scheme of the universe is finally sustained and controlled by some outside divine force which is the ultimate cause and hence the ultimate truth.
The Jain approach is totally different. In Jainism there is no place for God as the creator or sustainer of this universe. It does not believe that there is any outside force which distributes prizes and punishment. A soul, liberated completely from the bondage of Karmas, is all-knowing, all-powerful, omniscient and possesses all the attributes of what we understand by the expression "God". Pleasures and pains of life are the result of one's own actions calle "Karmas" and as a result of these Karmas every