Jaina Concept of Omniscience

Author(s): Ramjee Singh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 57

CONCLUDING REMARKS
ing by widening its meaning, which we have earlier discussed to some length in this work.co
III. Concluding Remarks The objectivity of concepts like God, soul, karma and the authority of the Vedas have been accepted by some while rejected by others, either as a result of faith or philosophical thinking.67
According to the popular view, belief in the creator God is the criterion of being an āstika. According to ihis principle not only the Jainas, the Buddhists and the Cārvākas but also the Sānkhyas, Mimāṁsakas, Advaitins will be treated as Nastika. The Sārkhyas need no such hypothesis as God, and the Advaitins regard the concept of creator God ( īśvara ) as the product of cosmic illusion or Māyā. This principle of division, therefore, is unsatisfactory, since it chooses only one principle namely the belief in God, and neglects the other equally vital and perhaps more comprehensive principles like soul, karma, etc.
The Vedicist like Manu suggests that an orthodox system is that which believes in the authority of the Vedas. According to this view, the Lokāyatas, Jainism and Buddhism will be called nästika, whereas some frank or concealed atheists like the Mimāṁsakas, the Sānkhyas and the Advaitins will be called āstika. Thus this classification is also based on a sectarian bias for the Vedas.
66 See Chapter I. 67 According to V. S. Agrawala India as known to Panini, (Lucknow
University, 1952), p. 337. Pāņini's reference to the terms astika, nāstika and daiş fika ( vide, Astādhyāyi, IV. 4.60 ) does not refer to beliefs, and non-belief in other worlds only. Astika is that whom the Buddhists books call Issarakaranavādi ( Vide, R. N. Mehta, PreBuddhist India, p. 333; C. D. Chatterjee, “A Historical Character in the Reign of Ashoka", Bhandarkar Com. Volume, Vol. I, (Poona, 1917).