Introduction to Jainsim

Author(s): Dewan Bahadur A B Lathe
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

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JAINISM
activity is denied. The falling of the rain, the milk in the breast of the mother, the heat given out by fire or the light of the sun are not creations of God but they exist by their own nature. If God is to take credit for these, it is as well that he should be censured for creating famines, plagues, inundations and earthquakes. The Hindu Vedant says that the origin of evils is in the तमो गुण of God and of good things, in the सत्य गुण of God. The Christians and the Muslims consider Saitan to be the doer of evils. God is said to be full of all the best qualities but not of all the vices.
The Jains go further and limit the duty of God to explaining the right path. Christianity concurs with it in saying that God has handed over the duty of giving judgments to his Son. In substance this doctrine means that God is the legislative power while his Son is the executive. This resembles the Jair. doctripe in many respects, in so far as it holds that the Teerthankars do not have the 'executive' powers in them.
Aristotel, the celebrated Greek philosopher who lived in 384 Aristotel on B. C. refers to God in these terms: creation
“Not taking cognizance of, and not regarding the affairs of the world, which owed not its existence to him, to which his presence and influence do not extend.”—
We shall now take up the last part of our discourse--the individual and national welfare arising from Jainism. From the above account some may be led to think that Jainism aims at after-life happiness and that there is no provision in it for worldly and natural happiness. But the fact is that Jainism is a so urce of happiness in this world and even from a national point of view. Worldly comfort consists in materials like food,