Jainism Not an Atheisam

Author(s): Herbert Warren
Publisher: Herbert Warren

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that God is pure intelligence and that when he created the world he associated himself with what appears to be and is called the non-intelligent. But here the question arises whether this non-intelligent element with which intelligent being became associated is a separate and different entity from God, or whether it is an attribute of God. If, it is a separate entity, then the theory of there being only one eternal thing is contradicted and dualism is accepted. If, on the other hand, it is an attribute of God, then this non-intelligent element must always have been
with him and he cannot be regarded as pure intelligence .. but must always have the elements of non-intelligence and
impurity in him. In the Jain theory this association of the pure and perfect intelligence with the element of non-intelligence and impurity is acknowledged, but the difference is this that while the Vedantists hold that God associated himself at some particular time with this non-intelligent element and thus became the visible world, the Jains maintain that this pure intelligence and non-intelligent element in so far as they are at present intermingled have been intermingled with each other from eternity and are thus the cause of the visible world. Soul and matter in the ordinary living being are as a matter of fact actually intermingled but as they never became but always have been intermingled, the question of the cause of their so becoming does not arise, for there never was a time when those souls who are now intermingled were not so. The real nature of the soul itself is. the same whether intermingled with matter.or pure, but while it is combined with the non-intelligent elem ment in the form of subtle material forces, these produce feelings of attachment and aversion; and the passions, acting as the instrumental cause of goo. and bad unnatural actions, become the mea.