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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM"
VI. (vi)Connotation of Word God with Jainism by Scholars
Invariably, in general, philosophers and scholars are misguided or have imbibed in their mind that Jainism is without God or there is no God in it. Especially in western philosophy, Jainism is categorized as atheistic philosophy, that it does not accept the God. Hence whenever someone say or write “Jaina God” immediately questions flashes in their mind, because they do not have clear conception of God in Jainism nor they are willing to accept the concept of God in Jainism. In this chapter quotes from renowned scholars are given regarding their opinion on Jaina God
(a) Dr. John Murphy, Ph.D. D. Litt.82
“There is, however, something very far from what we understand by theism, and even from personal deities of the wellknown polytheism, in the Jaina conception of the soul, the human soul becoming God. Thus a Jaina scholar of today writes, “The fully evolved soul is God”. The soul, "he goes on, “as inhabiting the bodies of living beings in the world, is not perfect. In its perfect condition it has the infinite quaternary, of infinite perception, infinite knowledge, infinite power and infinite bliss. By following the proper method, the soul gradually frees itself from all matters and becomes perfect, i.e. attains emancipation, salvation or Godhood. “Furthermore he said" It so, however, worth observing how near this doctrine of the soul becoming God approaches to the Brāhmanic doctrine of the Upanişads, in which the human self becomes through meditation the very Self of the universe, the Brahman-ātman such, then, is the place of Deity in the Jain Religion.
(b) Dr. Surendra Nath Dasgupta83
All Tīrthankaras have reached Moksa at their death, and they neither care for nor have any influence on worldly affairs, but yet they are regarded as “Gods” by the Jains and are worshipped.
*The origins and history of Religions, Manchester University Press, 1949, P- 448 ** A History of Indian Philosophy, P- 169,170
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