Introduction to Jainism and its Culture

Author(s): Balbhadra Jain
Publisher: Kundkund Gyanpith Indore

Page 94

FORM OF GOD
Almost all beings in this world have a feeling of self-awareness or ego and conceit. This ego makes a being recognize his body and its attributes as 'I' - I am a man; I am a woman; I am beautiful or ugly; I am intelligent or a fool. In the same way this being becomes fond of other sentient (cetana) and non-sentient things and considers them as his. For example my wife, my son, my house, my wealth, etc. The entire world of an individual is confined to I and my. The larger the ego the larger is his world. This ego and conceit are manifestations of attachment and aversion, which are not natural but pervert attitudes of the soul. These perversions attract material particles of karma and bond them with the soul. On fruition, these karmas provide conditions conducive to the formation of body and consequent experiences of pain and pleasure; they cause the soul to be drawn into the cycles of birth and death in various realms and genuses where it has to experience happiness and misery. These physical (dravya) karmas give rise to mental or psychical (bhāva) karmas including passions like attachment and aversion. In turn these mental karmas cause the bondage of physical karmas. This process has been going on since beginningless time. With the help from a guru or studying scriptures, the true form of the self is revealed on this being and he becomes capable of discerning between the self and 'the other'. Now he disciplines the feelings of ego and conceit, and with the help of Samyagdarśana, Samygjñāna, and Samyakcāritra gradually attains unison with the self. As a consequence all his physical and mental karmas are completely destroyed. This state is called the liberation of the being. It is this state that is also called supreme-soul. Now the being becomes Paramātmā or supreme-soul, or God. With the complete destruction of karmas the body, birth, death, attachment, aversion, desire, indulgence, effort all are destroyed. The soul is eternally established in its sublime form. Infinite virtues of soul, such as infinite knowledge, infinite bliss, infinite perception, and infinite potency, appear. Such pure soul will remain in this state of supreme-soul eternally.
WHY GOD CREATES UNIVERSE?
The followers of Advaita Vedanta believe that every living and non-living substance in this universe has originated from the inactive,
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