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THE JAINA CONCEPT OF THE DEITY
We may begin with the Vedic times, for the Jaina concept of divinity is in some way related to, and in its earliest formulation, remains silhoutted against the Vedic background. The gods of the Vedas are to some extent similar to the Hellenic gods, and thus not unlike temporal kings, despite etheriality and transcendental character with which they were endowed. They were worshipped in order to please them just as for gaining favours which, to not a small extent, were frankly material and mundane. They were also propitiated for avoiding their displeasure and anger alike. And they were invoked for winning victories over Aryan's potential enemies. The form of worship was in main the animal sacrifices.
During the period of the Brāhmanas, the Vedic gods are said to own their celestial position to sacrifices. Many are the legends told of the conflicts between the devas and the daityas for gaining supremacy over cosmos and the way in which gods managed their upper hand through the power of sacrifices!.
But, "in the Upanisads we find a criticism of the empty and barren ritualistic religion. They do not lead to final liberation". In the Upanisads, the “hymns to gods and goddesses are replaced by a search for the reality underlying the flux of things".3 The ultimate reality, according to the Upanişads, then, is none else but the Brahman which is identified with the Self. According to the Kena Upanişad, the Vedic gods of Fire, Air, etc. were themselves sustained by the power of the Brahman. This position indicated that Brahman is the supreme power of the Universe, and "the Vedic deities are the messengers of one light which has burst forth into the universal creation”.
The religion of the Jina (and other Sramanic sects) which grew and developed in the Upanişadic times formulated a conception of deity which reflects the mood and orientations of the period.
If we, then, make, in the light of this background, an attempt to deal with
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