Introduction to Jainsim

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

Page 56

JAINISM
empistenmological and moral points of view. And the, handling is as critical as it is finishing. Ť If God created the universe where was he before creating it? If he was not in space, where did he localise the universe ? “How could a formless or immaterial substance like God” continues the author of the Great Puran--Shri Jin Senacharya~"create the world of matter? Was he a mere architect? If not, whence could he bring his material; What was the source of his material? If there was any, who created the source? And where was that 'who'? If the material is to be taken as always existing, why not take the world itself as unbegun ? If the creater was uncreated, why not suppose the world to be itself self-existing ?” Again, "Is 1, God self-sufficient? If he is, he need not have created the world. If he is not, like an ordinary potter, he would he incapable of the task, since, by hypothesis, only a perfect being could produce it." "If he is to be said to have created the world with an aim, it is what no one will allow. If it is a mere play of his will, it would be making God childish. If you say that God is an agency, through which he creates every thing according as is determined by his Karmas, then, this makes him dependent upon others (for his activity). If he is only a fafaat (or an agent through whom something produces something) in the production of what is caused by Karmas, why needlessly should his aid be presumed when everything is complete by itself ?" Further on, the Acharya speaks almost in the strain of Morley in one of his works on the French Revolution Literature when he says “If God is benevolent and if he has created the world out of his grace, '† The basis of the Jain doctrine of non-creation is thus summarised:
भावस्स गथ्थि गासो रगच्थिय भावस्स चेव उप्पादो। गुरगपजएसु भावा उप्पादवये हि पकुवंति ।।
Samavasar by kundkundacharya.