Book Title: Ethnicity and Religious Heritage
Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: T U Mehta

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Page 32
________________ Jainism - A Goddess Creativity 27 question, it would be necessary to know what is "atheistic". If theism consists only in the belief in a personal or impersonal God as the creator and sustainer of this universe, then ccertainly Jainism is a-theistic as it does not believe that this universe is created and shaped by some personal or impersonal entity called God. Nor do the Jains believe that rendition of justice for the Good or bad deeds of human beings is at the mercy of some capricious will or whim of the Divine. Approach of Jain philosophers to this question is purely rational, and while they flatly reject the notion of a supremely authoritative God, it does not reject God-hood itself. It studies the component elements of the whole Universe, scrutinises the true nature and character of each, analyses their effect on the evolution of life, tries to find out the ultimate goal of the pregression and by a very subtle and logical process of mataphysics, shows the way to achieve God-hood. It has innate faith in the capacity of the spirit- the creative force called "Ātman" to achieve God-hood and makes no distinction Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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