Jaina Religion Historical Journey of Evolution

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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Jaina Religion: Its Historical Journey of Evolution 35
eyes of people and society. On one side were theistic thinkers and on the other were eternalists or fatalists who began to reject the independence of man. Jaina philosophy understood this difficulty and revitalized the spirit of human independence. It proclaimed that neither God nor any other divine power is the determining force of human being; it is only man himself who is the creator of his own being. Thus, it liberated him from the concepts of creatorship of God, which was taking away human independence, and established that the staunch faith in human independence alone can become the true basis of religion and philosophy. This view of the Jainas did not have as much influence on Hindu religion as was expected, but still, along with the acceptance of theistic philosophy the voices about human supremacy did resound simultaneously. Freedom from obscurantism (Orthodoxy)
Jaina religion liberated man from obscurantisms. It made an effort to free human society from many orthodox practices of that period such as animal-sacrifice, priesthood and performance of rituals to please the ancestors etc. and therefore it openly opposed such practices. The Brahmin class, which called itself, the representative of God, began social exploitation,