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1914.1
JAINA GAZETTE.
Prasncttra. We have much pleasure in publishing the following answers by Mr. Alexander Gordon, the Honorary Secretary of the Mahavira Brotherhood in London, to questions pat to him by Mani Ude Chandji Jain of Panjab. Mr. Diwan Chand Jain of Rawalpindi has communicated the above to us and promises to send hereafter more such questions and answers.
Question 1.- What is your opinion regarding God and soul? Is the soul a reflection of God ? or is the soul quite separate from it ?
Answer 1.- According to Jainism, Soul and God are, with regard to their real nature one ; but as Soul is combined with matter, as is the case with all mundane living beings (Sansari) it follows that such a soul is not actually God although souls are potentially Gods. The highest spiritual attributes of God exist potentially in every living being but they are not fully manifested because of being covered up by the condition of each soul as experienced in this world of matter.
The great hope of the Jain in his search for truth is the fact that he is aware of the possibility of knowing himself as, and becoming, a God by the following out of the Jaina Rales of conduct.
The soul is not a reflection of God, nor is the soul a reflection at all. A reflection is a condition of the surface of some thing other than the thing reflected ; whereas the soul is not a “condition" of a thing, the soul is itself a thing—Dravya.
The mundane soul is not separate from the potential God that it is, any more than impure gold is separate from the pure gold that it potentially is. In Jainism “ creating” and “ruling” the universe are not connected by the term God.
Question 2.-If God and Soul are said to have been separated from eternity, then how, when, and for what parpose, did the soul, which is now su afflicted with karmas which annoy so
greatly, come to be so afflicted. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
