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THE GOSPEL OF IMMORTALITY AND JOY IT will undoubtedly be a great surprise to many of our non-Jaina
friends to be told that Jainism is not an idolatrous creed and is as bitterly opposed to idol worship as the most iconoclastic religion in the world, yet the fact is as stated. The attitude of Jainism towards idolatry is evident from the following from the Ratna Karanda Sravakachūra, a work of paramount authority, composed by Sri Samantabhadrachārya, who flourished about the commencement of the second century A.D.:--
“Bathing in the so-called sacred rivers and oceans, setting up heaps of sand and stones (as objects of worship), immolating one-self by falling from a precipice or by being burnt up in fire (as in sati] are some of the common murhatis (superstitions or follies). The worshipping, with desire, to obtain favour of deities whose minds are full of personal likes and dislikes is called the folly of devotion to false divinity. Know that to be guru murhatî which consists in the worshipping of false ascetics revolving in the wheel of samsára (births and deaths, i.e., transmigration), who have neither renounced worldly goods, nor occupations, nor himsii (causing injury to others).”
This is sufficient authority for the view that Jainism strongly condemns fetish worship--the cult of rivers, stones and the like--- as well as devotion to human and super-human beings who have not eradicated their lower nature, that is to say, who are liable to be swayed by passion and by personal likes and dislikes. What, then, is the significance of the image-worship which takes place daily in our temples, and which is, undoubtedly, the cause of the false impression that has been formed by the non-Jainas concerning our faith?
To explain the nature of the worship that is performed in our temples, it is necessary first of all to summarise the Jaina creed, which fully accounts for it. The Jainas believe that every soul is godly by nature and endowed with all those attributes of perfection
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