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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY GOD IN JAINISM"
work leading to progress. So it is very useful doctrine conducive to all progress. It advises man to put forth proper effort to destroy veils of karmas to advance on the path of liberation and ultimately to attain liberation. It is the function of the doctrine of karma to connect the present birth with the past and the future birth in the cause-effect chain. If the future birth is not good, then it is in the hands of man to make efforts to improve it as also to effect changes in inauspicious karmas and in their fruition. This is what the doctrine of karma teaches. So the doctrine of Karma is not in any sense the doctrine of fatalism.
The soul binds karmas and also can dissociate the bound karmas from it by its own activities. All karmas are not unalterable. Many of them are such as can be altered by proper spiritual efforts. The karma philosophy goes to the extent of declaring that even the unalterable (nikācita karmas) can be altered and even destroyed by highly pure and intense spiritual discipline. What is meant is that we should not become inactive and hazy depending on karmas.
The other extreme is materialism, which believes in death as total extinction of personality. It denounces all efforts for final release as absurd and irrational. Self-interest is the only thing worth pursuit. Absence of self-interest means absence of everything else. Annihilation of individuality means annihilation of all. If I cannot remember the past, the past is non-existent. If I cannot keep my individuality of this life intact after death, there cannot be anything beyond death. This is materialism."
The Buddha's attitude was more ethical than metaphysical, Karman and rebirth were acknowledged as facts. His interest was riveted on finding out pathway to freedom from this cycle of existence. Sufferings and sorrow are universal facts and every individual seeks redemption from them. The Buddha starts from this
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"Dr. Nathmal Tatia, “Studies in Jain Philosophy", P-15 Studies in Jain Philosophy, P. 15
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