Jain Journal 1995 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 17

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JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXX, No. 2. October 1995
2. THE NATURE OF GOD AND CREATION OF UNIVERSE.
9.-What is god? Is He the creator of the universe? A.-1. Just see you and we, are all mundane beings bound with Karmas, i. e. our souls are in bondage of foreign matter and foreign impulses. The natural state of self with its intrinsic glory free from all karmas, aloof from all impurities and bondages is godhood. God is endowed with the fullness of peace, bliss and knowledge. This godhood is the inherent nature of self, but it is due to ignorance born of the bondage of karmas one is unable to have a vision thereof. However when one realises the truth that self is altogether aloof from body and its limitations the dire fruits of actions, and this self is introspected by mind, then by and by one begins to realise its inner glory of omniscience etc. If you just make a minute survey of the value of all things around you, you will find that there is nothing to excel in the glory of your self. Thus we are led to conclude that 'God' is a synonym of self. For this reason I have a firm conviction that God is self and self is God: God has no abobe outside the self.
2. God is not the creator of the universe. All the elements of nature such as atom, space etc. are eternal and uncreated. They have got their own substratum. They cannot be created from substances other than themselves. Perchance if one says that God has created them, this also does not look sound, because if God is a conscious being or consciousness is taken to be His characteristic, then how can atoms, and space etc. be conceived to have been born from Him? It is quite impossible for the insentient to come out of the sentient. If we regard God also to be insentient, then it will become deviod of all its glory of peace, bliss and knowledge. Just as it is impossible for material things to come out of God, similarly the conscious beings called jivas' cannot be born out of Him. If God is taken to be sentientcum-insentient, then we will have to content ourselves with universe by calling it to be God, because universe consists both of sentients and insentents. Perchance while admitting atoms, space etc. to be realities independent of God, you may assert that God is the giver of fruits of our actions, but this proposition also will equally fail. On this part it would be advisible to consult "Sad-darśana-samuccaya" which has dealt with this topic at length.
3. NATURE OF MOKṢA.
9-What is Mokṣa (Salvation)?
A-Mokṣa or salvation is the absolute liberation of self from anger, conceit, greed and other nescient propensities which bind the soul with earthly coils and other limitations. There is a natural