Essay on Jainism as a Religion without God

Jainism presents, along with Buddhism, a religion without belief in God. The atheism of the Jainas is based on the following chief grounds’

(i) God is not perceived, but sought to be proved through inference. The Nyaya holds, for example, that as ever)’ product, like a house, is the work of an agent (karta), the world which is a product must also have an agent or creator who is called God.

But this inference is inconclusive, because one of the premises, ‘the world is a product,’ is doubtful. How is it proved that the world is a product? It cannot be said that the world is a product because it has parts.

Though akasa has parts, it is not admitted by the Nyaya to be a product; it is said to be an eternal substance not produced by anything else.

Again, wherever we perceive anything being produced, the producer or the agent is found to work on the material with his limbs. God is said to be bodiless. How cans He, then, work on matter to produce the world?

(ii) Like the existence of God, the qualities of omnipotence, unity, eternity and perfection, generally attributed to Him, are also doubtful. If God is omnipotent, He should be supposed to be the cause of all things.

But this is not true, because we perceive daily that many objects like houses, pots, etc. are not produced by God. God is held to be one on the ground that if there were many gods, they would act with different plans and purposes, and consequently a harmonious world, as we have, would not have been possible.

But this argument is not sound, because we observe that many human beings like masons, and even lower animals build structures like palaces, ant-hills, and hives. God, again, is said to be eternally perfect.

But eternal perfection is a meaningless epithet. Perfection is only a removal of imperfection, and it is meaningless to call a being perfect who was never imperfect.

Though the Jainas thus come to reject God as the creator of the world, they think it necessary to meditate on and worship the liberated, perfect souls (siddhas). The liberated souls possessing the God-like perfections, mentioned already, easily take the place of God.

Prayers are offered to them for guidance and inspiration. The offering of prayers to five kinds of pure souls (pancaparamesti) also forms a part of the daily routine of the devout Jainas.

In spite of the absence of a creator-God, the religious spirit of the Jaina lacks neither in internal fervour nor in external ceremonial expressions.

By meditating on the pure qualities of the liberated and those who are advanced on the path to liberation, the Jaina reminds himself daily of the possibility of attaining the high destiny.

He purifies his mind by the contemplation of the pure and strengthens his heart for the xphill journey to liberation. Worship, for the Jaina, is not seeking or mercy and pardon. The Jaina believes in the inexorable moral law of karma which no mercy can bend.

The consequences of the past misdeeds can only be counteracted by generating within the soul strong opposite forces of good thought, good speech and good action. Everyone must work out his own salvation.

The liberated souls serve only as beacon lights. The religion of the Jaina is, therefore, a religion of the strong and the brave.

It is a religion of self-help. This is why the liberated soul is called a victor (jina) and a hero (vTra). In this respect it has some other parallels in India, in Buddhism, the Sarikhya and the Advaita- Vedanta.