________________
46
Jain
Theism
quite successful and quite a practical one to help a person in day-today affairs of life. It is a living faith, a living religion “that has preserved in a large measure the originality and integrity of its system." To sum up, in the words of the late J.L. Jaini, an erudite thinker, “I am convinced that in its spirit and cssential doctrines Jainism has that in it which satisfies the deepest and the most varied wants - mental and spiritual of the men and women of our age.")+7 2.3.4 Conclusion
It will be well to summarize briefiy the outcome of the points and issues we have seen in this section under religion, God and Jainism, Religion as we have seen, projects before us a wider perspective. It does not become limited to only rites and rituals. The core of it lies in its worship which again is a way of life leading the devotee to the fulfilment of the highest goals of life. God, in the same sense, becomes much more than what an orthodox theologians would explain. In its highest philosophic expression God is soul (man) and soul is God. Soul in its pure form is divine and possesses all the infinite, limitless powers which we are told to be otherwise God's attributes. Jainism provides a very good example of a system that has the deepest magnitudeness of a religion and highest value of God in human soul. If we could develop this theme, which I have tried in the succeeding chapters, we evolve theism in Jainism : may be this theism might appear as a 'modified one', one as Dr. S. N. Dasgupta says, as a 'hidden' one as the Jain scholars say or even 'Cripto theism'. But then certainly Jainism appears to us as anything but atheism.
147. J.L Jaini, Outline of Jainism (1979) Preface p. xiv.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
