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APRIL, 1974
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addition, the sentimental element being still a favourite. The cultivation of the intellectual element is the special feature of the Aryan religions. But only in Jainism all these elements are well balanced, whilst in the old Brahmanism and in Buddhism the cultivation of the intellectual element is often exaggerated.
In order to fix the position of Jainism in relation to other religions, we must look now a little into the inside of Jainism. As it is not possible to explain in a short space the whole system of Jainism and I think it would be useless to do it, I want to call special attention only to such facts in it as are really prominent for the fixing of its position in the rank of religions and which are giving to Jainism a particular importance in the comparative science of religions.
In the first place of importance there is its dogmatical view of god. In this respect Jainism is an anthropocentric religion. It is true that already the Vedic and the Brahmanic religions have been anthropocentric, but in a quite different way. The anthropocentricism of these religions has been only formal, as they recognised gods as beings of a superhuman origin, and only subjected to their rites by their own speculation and cunning. But the real anthropocentricism we find only in Jainism and Buddhism, although the latter deviated too much from its original ideas about this dogmatical problem.10 And besides, the original Buddhism went rather further on this point, and we are not yet quite sure, whether it did not deny God originally at all.11
The Jaina view of God is a very natural one for a thinking being. The God according to the Jainas is Paramatman, but not Isvara, i.e., the God is not a creator and ruler, but he is a perfect being, who cannot be set back to the imperfect condition of this world, and as such is worshipful. I can compare the Jaina idea of God only with the concep
. It was specially due to the Brahmanic doctrine that the prayer must be obeyed
by the god, if it is only done perfectly well, without any mistake, as prescribed
by the Holy Books. 10 It was due specially to the fact that Buddhism originally did not recognise the
householders as the real followers of Buddha, but only as the friends and helpers of the movement, who may gain some merit by supporting the real followers of the Buddha, the bhiksus. They have been really left, at their discretion, in the lap of other religions the influence of which worked rather badly on the de
veloping of the original Buddhist ideas, specially the idea of God. 11 This is connected with the Buddhist conception of soul, or rather of the Buddhist
denying of the soul at all as a substance, and therefrom the resulting materialistic conception of the world, life, thought, etc.
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