Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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and is transformed into divinity. Viewed as a type, as the state of highest spiritual evolution, divinity is one, connoting collectively all the divinities represented by all the emancipated and liberated souls. But, viewed individually, each liberated soul is a full and perfect divinity in itself and by itself; it does retain its individuality even in liberation.
THE DOCTRINE
This is the conception of God in Jainism, which as a type is the idea to all the devoted seekers and aspirants. The siddhas and the arhats represent the two types of divinity or godhood, the former being the absolutely liberated bodiless pure souls, and the later, also known as the kevalins or Jinas, including the Tirthankaras, those who attained emancipation in life, the state of jīvan-mukta. The siddhas are also designated the nikalaparam-atmans, or divinities absolutely free from karman and the arhats the sakala-param-ātmans or divinities still embodied and bound by the aghati karmans. They are both, however, alike in so far as both are spiritually perfect, omniscient, and absolutely devoid of feelings of attachment and aversion. This conception of divinity is the best illustration of the often quoted axiom that the aim of religion is the realisation of the potentially divine in man.
Jainism thus does believe in God and Godhood, but not in a God as the first cause. It also possesses a large pantheon of godlings, celestials or angels, who are superhuman but not supermen, are divine beings but not divinities or deities. These devas of the heavens are endowed with supernatural powers and a vast scope, capacity and means for sensual indulgence and enjoying carnal pleasures. Yet, they are not immortal; a deva's existence is bound to terminate, as of the other mortal beings, when the period of his life according to his ayus karman comes to an end.
Moreover, in so far as the capability of conscious spiritual evolution is concerned, a deva can at best rise to the fourth state or guṇa-sthāna, that of clear vision and right conviction