Introducing Jainism

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 15

INTRODUCING JAINISM
also extraordinary and mysterious, and therefore, some power is added to them. That one Creator is a Unique Being (ekam sat) and has been described by different sages in a manifold way (bahudhā vadanti). So the sun, the moon, the stars, the cloud, and even Indra, Varuņa, Yama, etc. are considered as supreme powerful.10 The adjectives applied to these phenomenal gods in order to praise them show that they are almost equally powerful with the Creator. In this way, the conception of one creator originated together with His other aspects which are equally powerful and independent.
Having established the idea of one Creator, the Vedic seers felt it necessary to bridge a relationship between man and the Creator. It is in this connection that the question of sacrificial rites (yajñas) comes into existence." To the Vedic seers sacrifice was one of the best means, if not the only one, by which a man could communicate with the Ultimate Reality (Parama Purusa) and could send his message to Him. 12 It was also considered at that time that sacrifice was one of the chief means of attaining puruşārtha. It was also thought that men should send their messages to the Creator through Agni who acted as a divine messenger. And gods are always waiting for men to receive their messages through the mouth of Agni (agnimukhā vāi devāḥ). The Sacrifice, it seems to me, was introduced in order to seek happiness by men in this mundane life by making a relation with God. One of the attributes of God is, in fact, a state of happiness in Him. That is why, Indra used to get happy by drinking the soma which was offered to him by his devotee and which was carried to him by Agni, the divine messenger. In fact, to drink the soma, or to eat purodāsa (a sort of cake used at the sacrifice) was intended to awaken or augment the state of joy in human beings. Eventually, of course, this sacrifice developed into a complex system, and killing of animal as
10. Indram Mitram Varuņam Agnir āhur atho divyaḥ sa Suparņo
garutmān/ ekam sad viprā bahudhā vadantyagnim Yamam
Matarisvānam āhuh// (RV. 1.164.46). 11. For the significance of Sacrifice, see Hastings, Encyclopaedia
of Religion and Ethics, under Sacrifice. 12. agnimukhā vai devāh