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JAINA MYTHOLOGY Could anything show more clearly the terrible way in which caste has fettered not only the lives and customs of the Jaina but even their imagination, than this fact that the very gods who serve are regarded as polluted and contaminated by that service? It is this belief that hinders Jaina from taking their share in the social uplift of India; and it is only the revelation of a Son of God who was amongst us as one that serveth that can set them free.
Over all the Deyaloka there is a place called Siddhabilă, in which the Siddha live.
All the gods are in a state of happiness, eating, drinking and singing; the good gods (Samakitī) make a point of being present and listening whenever the Tirthankara preach, but the false gods (Mithyātvī) do not attend. Even the Samakiti will have to be born as men before they can attain mokşa, but they will soon arrive there, whereas the Mithyātvi will have to undergo numberless rebirths.
Indra is the supreme god, ruling over all the gods, and his commands they must all obey.
The Jaina illustrate their ideas of heaven and hell by the diagram of a man's figure. The legs of the figure, they say, represent Adholoka, wherein are situated the seven hells or Naraka. Ratna Prabhā, the first hell, is paved with sharp stones ; Sarkara Prabhā, the second, with pointed stones of sugar-loaf shape; Vālu Prabhā with sand; Panka Prabhā with mud; Dhumra Prabhā is filled with smoke; Tama Prabhā is dark enough; but Tamatama Prabhā is filled with thick darkness. The hideous torments inflicted in these terrible hells by the evil gods we have already studied, but in all these hells the jīva have the hope that they will eventually escape from thence when their karma is exhausted. A Svetāmbara sādhu, however, told the writer of a still worse place, Nigoda, situated below the feet of the figure in our diagram, in which are thrown evil jīva who have committed specially heinous sins like murder, and who have no hope of ever coming out. They suffer excruciat.
