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JAINISM: A THEISTIC PHILOSOPHY “GOD IN JAINISM”
Umāsvāti says mokṣa is the total and final freedom from all karmic matter°; or exhaustive dissolution of all karmic particles, which is the condition of omniscience.29 State of Moksa (Mukti-Sthāna)
There is different interpretation on different philosophical predilection regarding the questions on the state of the soul at the time of mokșa and its state when it is liberated.
The Nyāya-Vaiseșikas and Sāmkhya-Yoga maintain that the soul is pervading and there are many souls. Souls do not possess different states from those that they possessed in saṁsāra. Souls, in the state of liberation, become free from the gross bodies and also from the subtle bodies, which is due to a gross body. The Jīvātman or a Puruşa becomes different from the differentiated states and become all pervading.
The Kevalādvaitins maintain that the ātman, i.e. the Brahma has vyāpakatva, but there is no plurality. Liberated soul becomes free from the subtle bodies, which is antaḥkaraṇa, and becomes free from all empirical adjuncts. It realizes the state of Brahma. Soul in sūkşma-śarīra, liberated, does not mean that it is different from empirical soul, because it is the Brahmasvarūpa in its pure form.
Regarding Jaina view of the mokṣa-sthāna, Jaina says that Jīva (soul) has the characteristic of Urdhavagati (tendency to go upwards)." When karmic particles are removed and when soul is free from karmas, it moves upwards to the end of the Lokākāśa and remains in its pure form in the Siddhaloka, at the end of Lokākāśa. It does not move further because there is the absence of dharmāstikāya in Alokākāśa. The state of perfection at the end of the Lokākāśa is called Siddhasilā. The Jaina literature presents the extension of Siddhasilā and such a description of the extension of the place where liberated souls reside is not stated in any other school of Indian
28 Tattvārtha-sūtra, X-2, 29 Ibid.X-1
Uttarādhyayana, 19.82, Praśamarati-prakarana, 294
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