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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM"
V. R. Gandhi, who was probably the first exponent of Jainism in the West opined, “The non-enlightened soul is unable to look through and beyond Māyā, which like a veil hides from it its true nature. Instead of recognizing itself to be Brahma it blindly identifies itself with its adjuncts- the fictitious off springs of Māyā, and thus looks for its true self in the body, the sense organs, etc. The soul, which in reality is pure intelligence, non-active, infinite, becomes limited in knowledge and power. Through its actions it burdens itself with merit and demerit, the consequences of which it has to bear or enjoy in series of future embodied-existences. The Lord, Isvara, as retributor and dispenser, allotting to each soul that form of embodiment to which it is entitled by its previous actions” 13
Vedānta philosophy then rests on the fundamental conviction of the Vedāntists that soul and Absolute Being or Brahma is one in their essence. In the old Upanişads this conviction rises slowly; but once it was recognized that the soul and Brahma were in their essence one, the old mythological language of Upanişads was given up. Samkara says, “that he who is free from all attachment, unchangeable and unmoved, should move or go to another place? The highest oneness if once truly conceived, excludes any like an approach to a different object or to a distant place.” 14
“By true knowledge” says Samkara, "the individual soul does not become Brahma but it is itself Brahma. As soon as it comes to know the reality it becomes Brahma. Being and knowing are one here."15
Characteristic difference between Yoga and Vedāntism is, in Yoga the human soul is represented as burning with love for God, as filled with a desire for union with or absorption in God. We find little of that in Upanişads, and when such ideas occur they are argued away by the Vedānta philosophers. They always cling to the
13VRG, The systems of Indian philosophy”, 1993, P-73-76 14 Ibid, P-82 15 Ibid, P-83
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