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AN EPITOME OF JAINISM
Jains atheists NO
yield an inch in their astute denial of an omnipotent extra-mudane God. The Chårvåka materialists openly and avowedly teach and preach that there is not only no God but there is no soul at all for the so-called redemption of which one should toil and moil all the day and night forsaking all pleasures of life and thought.
One might well venture to remark here Are the that all these schools being more or less
atheistic, are the Jains too atheists of similar type ? 'No', is the emphatic answer, we have to offer to the equirers The Jains do believe in a God after their own way of thinking—a belief which is in and through saturated with all the vigour and strength of life. It does not make us dependant on any Almighty Ruler for our being and beatitude here or hereinafter It does not cast us into the moulds of those weaklings who love to creep' with a quivering prayer" on their lips to the silent doors of the Deity, nor of those who crawl; beating breast at every step before his ficlitious feet or figure to adore' Rathei it makes us feel that we are independent autonomous individuals
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