Fundamental of Jainism

Author(s): Prithviraj Jain
Publisher: Prithviraj Jain

Page 13

ficent and impressive thing that a human being should rise to great heights mentally and spiritually and should then seek to raise othere up, rather than that he shouid be the mouthpiece of a divine or superior power. Some of the f'unders of religions were astonishing individ ials, but all their glory vanishes in my eyes wh-n I cease to think of them as human beings. What impress es me and gives me hope is the growth of mind and spirit of man, and not his being used as an agent to convey a message.”?!
The theory that there is one personal God with virtues and powers for ill, controlling all the activities of the universe, cannot produce desirable moral qualities in the heart of the worshipper. Aldous Huxley rightly maintains that "belief in a personal moral God had led only too frequently to theoretical dogmatism and practical ntolerance and to the commission in the name of the divinely moral person of every kind of iniquity".
The basic feature of the Jain conception of God is that worship is absolutely impersonal and all human souls worthy of Godhood are given reverence with: out distinction of colour, caste or country. The Jaina Navikara Manira; recited by the Jains many times a day, pays homage not to individuals but to five classes of Parameshthins (Supreme Ones.):
1. Arhats, embodied souls which have attained omniscience.
2. eddhas, who have discarded even the body and attained final liberation ,
3. Acha: yrs, heads of the monastic order. 4. Upadhyayas, teacher-saints. 5. Sadhus, ordinary ascetics.
6 The Discovery of India. 7 Ends and Means, p. 301.
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