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Jaina Philosophy and Religion
Thus, transmigratory wandering is the result of one's not following the teachings of God (Supreme Soul).'
Some have cultivated attachment or love for the statement 'God is Creator'. The saint philosophers have preached that God is the creator of the world, keeping in view these persons. This is what Acārya Haribhadra has said in the following verse:
kartā'yam iti tadvākye yataḥ keşāñcid ādaraḥ/ atas tadānugunyena tasya kartytuadeśanā //13// Now he shows how God is the agent or creator in the primary sense. paramaiśvaryayuktatvān mata ātmaiva veśvaraḥ/ sa ca karteti nirdosah kartrvādo vyavasthitah //14// Meaning: Or, it is maintained that the soul itself is God (īśvara), because in its pure pristine state, it is possessed of divine faculties of omniscience etc. (aiśvarya). And there is no doubt that the soul is really the agent or doer. In this way we can make the doctrine of God as creator cogent.
While closing the topic, Ācārya Haribhadra concludes with these words: 1. When we gain profit by following the advice of someone, we call him the doer of
good in the form of profit) to us. If we incur losses by not following his advice or by acting against it, we do not call him-even in worldly intercourse—the doer of evil (in the form of losses) to us. Similarly, we attain liberation by following the path propounded by the Supreme Soul. So, we can consider him our liberator or doer of good to us. (This consideration is certainly secondary, yet cogent and attractive and appealing). But it is not proper to regard him even secondarily the giver of miseries to us, even if we suffer miseries of transmigratory wanderings on account of our not following the path preached by him. We neither like nor approve of even such secondary usage as calling Supreme Soul, the giver of miseries to us. This is the reason why Upadhyāya Yaśovijayaji has to write as follows, while commenting on the above quoted verse 12: “angulyagre karišatam'ity adivad yathakathañcid upacārena vyavahāranirvāhāt." (Meaning: This statement is like the worldly statement 'There are one hundred elephants on the tip of a finger' and like the latter, it is to be tolerated somehow even secondarily.) According to Jaina philosophy, there are two types of supreme souls, viz. bhavastha (those in the embodied state) and bhavātīta (those beyond the embodied state). As supreme souls who are in embodied state have mind, spech and body, they perform activities like walking, speaking, etc. They are the discoverers and propagators of the path of spiritual welfare, that is, liberation, as also the founders and organisers of the Order of aspirants. On the other hand, as supreme souls who are beyond embodied state are totally free from body, they are engrossed in their natural pure light of knowledge. They are called siddhas.
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