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Jaina Philosophy and Religion
the rejection of one, all the rest stand automatically rejected. Once soul is accepted, rebirth stands automatically accepted. With rebirth, invariably go auspicious and inauspicious karmas. Liberation is nothing but perfect purity of the soul itself. So with the acceptance of soul goes also the acceptance of liberation. And liberation is identical with God. In other words, God is nothing but the pure liberated soul itself. So theism is implicit in the doctrine of soul.
Lengthy discussion is not necessary to prove the existence of God. We can easily prove it. Just as there exists in the world a dirty mirror, even so there exists a clean mirror too. Or, just as there exists impure gold even so there exists pure gold also. Similarly, the existence of pure soul stands logically established on the basis of the existence of an impure soul. The existence of a clean mirror or pure gold is necessarily inferred from that of a dirty mirror or impure gold. Similarly, the existence of pure soul can be inferred from that of impure soul. Just as an impure physical thing can become pure, even so the impure soul can also become pure. Again, we perceive the partial purity in living beings. From this, we can infer the possible perfect purity attainable by them. And the one who has attained it is Supreme Soul, the one who will attain it will become Supreme Soul. The attainment of the state of Supreme Soul is itself the manifestation of the state of God. The perfectly pure soul is the Supreme Soul, and the Supreme Soul itself is God.
(14)
It is not that this world is created altogether anew at a certain point of time. It exists from the beginningless time. Of course, it constantly undergoes change. Some changes are such as are brought about by sentient agency; and others are such as do not require sentient agency for their origination, that is, they are natural. The natural changes come into existence owing to the diverse combination of material atoms, molecules and aggregates. As for example, hills or mountains are formed on account of the combination of earth, stones, etc. A river comes into being on account of the commingling of streams of water flowing here and there. A jungle is formed when many plants, trees and creepers grow together. When vapour rises high, it cools and turns into water and comes down as rains. Again this water turns into vapour, and this cycle goes on.
It is rightly said that though karma is material, there is generated in it such a power owing to its peculiar association with the soul that it
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