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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY "GOD IN JAINISM"
If a man would escape this universal karma he must go out of the universe-that is he must merge in the Absolute.
When all the desires hidden in the heart are loosed, then the mortal becomes immortal, the he here enjoys Brahman."
Jaina view of Karma Compared with the Veda Philosophy
According Dr. N.N. Bhattacharya, “Karma and its fruits are meant in the Vedas to be the sacrificial acts and their results-not so much for any moral elevation, as far the achievement of objects of practical welfare. Knowledge to Vedic thinkers meant only the knowledge of sacrifice and of the dictates of the Vedas. It was not taken in its widest and most universal sense. These were the points on which Jainism and Buddhism had a significant departure from Vedic line. In quest of true knowledge Buddhism regarded all production and destruction as being due to the assemblage of conditions and reached at least to the doctrine of absolute momentariness. Jainism also believed that changes were produced by the assemblage of conditions but instead of carrying this idea to that of absolute momentariness, it accepted the doctrine of permanence in a relative sense. The Jaina philosophers held that no ultimate, one-sided and absolute view of things could be taken. Thus, according to Jainism, not only the happening of events is conditional, but also even all our judgments are true only in limited sense. By the assemblage of conditions, old qualities in things disappear, new qualities come in, and parts remain permanent." !
The doctrine of karma, transmigration of soul and its rebirth as per Jainism and Buddhism inspired Vedic tradition. In early Vedic ideas of karma denoted sacrifices; however in the later Vedic texts, especially in the Upanişads, the idea of the agriculture maxim, 'as one sow so he reaps' was introduced.
"Kathopanişad, 11.6.14 Dr. N. N. Bhattacharyya, “Jain Philosophy, Historical Out Line”, P-191
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