Siddhachalam NJ 1990 04 Mahavir Jayanti

Author(s): Siddhachalam NJ
Publisher: USA International Mahavir Jain Mission Siddhachalam

Page 27

Jainism Atheistic?
DR. S. GOPALAN FORMER PROF. UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
derstanding that jaina heterodoxy is analogous to that of the Carvakas.
In regard to the second interpretation, there can be no two opinions on the fact that Jainism is clearly anti-Vedic. Jainism does not accept the authenticity and authoritativeness of the Vedic teaching but this in itself was not due to disbelief in speculative and metaphysical analyses of the human situation. The Jaina psychology, metaphysics and epistomology are positive evidences to the fact that rejection of Vedic authority was not necessitated by an aversion to philosophical speculation. The jaina tradition has its own line of teachers and sages and also sacred books containing philosophic wisdom. These 'books' were considered authoritative by the Jainas. The Jainas believe that their scriptures give right knowledge since they embody the utterances of persons who has themselves lived a worldly life but who perfected themselves by means of right actions and right knowledge. The third interpretation of nastika as one who does not believe in God is extremely important, since the popular understanding of the term invariably equates it with the term atheism. Tocategorically dub Jainism as atheistic is both unwarranted and unphisophical, for we find in Jainism only the rejection of a 'supremely personal god' and not godhead itself.
R. Garbe makes a significant distinction between naive and philosophical atheism. He points out that naive atheism is to be traced to the Vedic age. "In the Rig Veda the national god, Indra is denied in several passages, and we read of people who absolutely denied his existence even in those early days. We have here the first traces of that naive atheism which is so far from indulging in any philosophical reflection that it simply refuses to believe what it cannot visualize, and which, in a later period, was known as the disbelief of the Lokayadta system; that is to say, of crass materialism. It is different with the atheism which had grown into a conviction as a result of serious philosophical speculation; this, in disconnection from the other naive form, we may describe briefly as philo- sophic atheism. Jaina atheism, if properly interpreted, belongs to the category of philosophic atheism, for there is a deep analysis of the concept of god as the Supreme Cause of the Universe and a systematic refutation of the arguments of the philosophers, who have sought to deprive the existence of God. The
term god is used in Jainism to denote a higher state of existence of the jiva or the conscious principle. The system believes that this state of godly existence is only a shade better than that of the ordinary human being, for, it is not free from the cycle of birth and death. The longest period of celestial existence in the highest heaven Sarvarthasiddhi is between 32, and 33 'oceans of years' (sagaropamas). The moment the "gods' exhaust their good karmas because of which they attained a better status than that of the ordinary human beings, they have to come down to the earth, unless, in the meanwhile they gain the saving knowledge which enables them to come out of the vicious circle of birth and death.
The liberated souls, according to the Jaina view, go up the of the universe and they are those who have perfected themselves, absolutely and hence are those who have no longer to 'face the fall,' for they eternally remain there. They have cut them selves away from the world of life and death (samsara) and so by hypothesis cannot exert any influence over it. Hence the functions of a Supreme Ruler, Creator and Regulator cannot be attributed to them. In regard to others who are still in samsara they cannot be regarded as eternal gods. It is in this sense that the Tirthankara's is a more covetable position than that of 'god.' Attaining the status of Tirthankara is the aim of life and the Tirthankara is the shining example to humanity, assuring it that spiritual perfection is attainable and is not merely a speculative value.
In understanding the atheistic aspects of Jaina philosophy one other remark of Garbe regarding the gods in India is helpful. He says: "In India, recognition of these faded gods of the people has been fully reconciled with the atheistic view of the world. In the samkhya system, belief in gods who have risen to evanescent god head (janyesvar, karyesvara) has nothing whatever to do with the question of God Eternal (nityesvara), as regards whom the theist assume that he made the world with his will. The use of a special term (Isvara, The powerful) in Indian philosophy obviously arose out of the endeavor to distinguish this God even verbally from the shadow-like gods of the people (deva).
In this connection it is well to remember that even some of the orthodox systems - among the six classical ones - have been repudiating belief in God The Nyaya and Vaisesika systems for example
According to the two-fold division of systems of indian philosophy, into the orthodox (astika) and the heterodox (nastika), Jainism, along with the Carvaka and the Buddhist systems is grouped under the heterodox systems.
Of the three senses in which the term nastika is made use of in the Indian tradition, viz., disbelief in a life beyond, disbelief in the authority of the Veda and disbelief in God. Jainism cannot be classified as a nastika system in the first sense since it does not maintain that death is the end of life, that after death nothing exists. Belief in the doctrine of karma and the doctrine of transmigration of souls which are considered foundational to the edifice of souls which are considered foundational to the edifice of the classical six systems of Indian philosophy are the accepted fundamental tenets in Jainism as will. The description of the four states of being (jiva) clearly indicates that Jainism was not a crude nastika system. Theexhortation found in Jainism for man to live an ethical life so that he won't slip down the scale of spiritual evolution together with the insistence on aiming at complete freedom from the shackles of matter (karma) clear the misun
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