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OCTOBER, 1989
end, and therefore not produced by a God or ruled by one. They recognise a highest deity (paramadevatā) as the object of veneration viz., the Jina, the teacher of the sacred law, who, being absolutely free from all passions and dissolution and being possessed of omniscience, has reached absolute perfection after having annihilated all his karma."11 So, there is no eternal God sitting upon judgement on human beings. Human souls themselves attained siddha-hood by shedding away all impurities. Such human souls become completely free and are possessed of infinite knowledge, perception and bliss. These Siddhas neither create nor destroy anything. So, though this system does not believe in God, yet it believes in the innate divinity in each soul. Every soul can realise its intrinsic divinity by self-efforts.
So, we may conclude from the above discussion that Jaina atheism without denying the existence of the soul and without presuming a Creator God, makes each individual responsible for his own fate and maintains that everything in the universe is eternal and that ethical living alone can ensure lasting happiness.
11 Encyclopaedia of Religion & Ethics, Vol. II, p. 187.
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