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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY “GOD IN JAINISM”
The Tathāgata Buddha said that nirvāṇa is ‘avyākṣta' indescribable in words and inexpressible in thought. It is beyond comprehension in thought and description in words.-4 Buddha did not discuss the nature of nirvāṇa and metaphysical problems, because he was averse to metaphysical discussions. The result was his disciples followed different paths of interpretation. Some adduced negative interpretation of nirvāṇa as absolute cessation of existence as sūnyatā; and others gave a positive content to nirvāṇa as a state with the bliss as its category.“
Buddhists maintain that nothing is permanent. Everything is transitory and in flux. In the state of rebirth, there is no permanent self that emerges from earlier birth to the next birth. It is only the psychic continuity of Vijñāna that projects itself into the next life.co
Moksa literally means “release', release of soul from eternal fetters of karma. Nirvāṇa (Buddhist) is derived from the Pāli root “nibuttu', which means blowing out. However, instead of taking it in a metaphorical sense of 'blowing out of passions etc., it is taken in the literal sense of extinction. There is ample evidence to believe that Buddha himself looks upon nirvāṇa as a positive state of consciousness.
Jaina concept of Mokşa; Vedic and Buddhist traditions have varied interpretations regarding mokṣa. Earlier Vedic seers did not discuss the nature of mokṣa and later on the philosophers of Vedic tradition gave their own interpretation of the nature of mokşa, when the concept was introduced in its tradition.
The varied interpretation regarding the nature of nirvāṇa in the Vedic and Buddhist philosophy, as explained in here, is not so with the development of Jaina thought. The Tīrthankara Mahāvīra was an omniscient, a kevalin; and the words of the kevalin had absolute authority. Therefore, there did not appear to have differences regarding the metaphysical problems like the nature of mokṣa.
2*N.K. Bhagat, Patna University Lectures, 1924-25, P.165 2Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, “Indian philosophy", vol. I, P-416-17 20 Milindapraśna, 4.8.62-64
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