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CONCLUSION
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perfected soul as Paramātman is God. Swami Prabhavanand, a staunch Vedāntist, opined that Jainism holds that every soul is a potentially Paramātman; in this sense the Jaina religion, despite its denial of the personal factor in creation, is very far from being purely atheistic, for it posits definitely the divinity of the soul and the possibility of our realizing its divinity”. Furthermore he said about Buddhism “the Lamas, or holy men, are priest of theistic religion, for whose God, Buddha, temples have built and an elaborate rituals has been created.” Jainas have built temples, created elaborate rituals and devotional prayers for their God, the Tīrthankara. Jainas belief towards their God, the Tīrthankara, the Paramātmā, is the same, as Vedāntist believe in Brahma, Buddhist belief in their God, the Lord Buddha. Quotes from Western Scholars that Jainas believe man-God is refuted by Jaina as it exhibited here their approval of speculative philosophy of God.
It can be said in general that Jaina mind was always open to receive the alien thoughts without any distortion and assimilate them with their own. This fact was due to more than one reason. Firstly, the Jaina logical thought had a comparatively late origin, and so the non-Jaina thinkers had already asserted their position even before the Jaina thinkers came to the arena. The Jainas had a lot to learn and assimilate. Secondly, Jaina had to argue their own case before the hostile thinkers, Vedic Brāhmaṇas with measure of efficiency and critical look before they could hope to get a patient hearing from their opponents who would naturally refuse to listen to their (Jainas) arguments unless they embodied correct appreciation and their criticism.
Thirdly, many of the first rate Jaina thinkers, such as Siddhasena, Samantabhadra, Akalanka, Haribhadra and other were converts from learned Brahmins and had first-hand knowledge of the
Swami Prabhavanand, "Spiritual Heritage of India", 2000,P-157 Dr. Nathmal Tatia, “Studies in Jain Philosophy”, 1951, P-29
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