Religion and Culture of the Jains

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

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
(samyāg-drșțī), and no more. And, as to that, an animal (fivesensed intelligent one like a lion, elephant, bull or horse) and even a denizen of hell can attain this stage. What to speak of ordinary gods and goddesses, belonging to the different orders of celestial beings, even the Devendra, the king of these gods, with all his greatness and fabulous powers, can never enter the ‘Kingdom of God' that is, the spiritual liberation implied by the term mokṣa or nirānva. It is not the human beings, if they are right believing and sensible, who propitiate or worship these Devas, but it is the latter who adore and worship the god-men, the Arhats, Jinas or Tirtharkaras, and even their true and sincere human devotees.
Pragmatic Optimism
The samsāra (the world of being and becoming) is looked upon, in Jainism, as 'vale of tears', and consequently 'a vale of soul-making'. It involves suffering, struggle, anxiety, despair, fresh endeavour, heroic fortitude, and final achievement or emancipation. The journey's end is reached when the human soul wrenches itself away from all the shackles of karman and is able to soar up on its upward fight to the abode of the siddhas (to siddhahood) in sublime solitariness, the kevalin, or total, isolated and exclusive state. The chastening of man, his journey through the world of becoming and his final liberation constitute the theme of Jaina philosophical and religious thought. In this system 'Man is the measure of all things' in a far more profound sense than that implied by Protagoras, the great sophist. Jainism upholds no extra-cosmic diety to be worshipped. A man has only to turn inwards to discover that he himself is the diety in the making. Perfection lies inherent in him to be made manifest. He forms the 'Way in' for that paradise wherein is situated the temple of spiritual freedom. This conception embodies an important truth, namely, that man's heritage as man is far superior to any other riches of the