The Search for God Page 5.6.3
The views and beliefs of Jains
| What is eternal? | Six eternal substances – sentient beings, non-sentient matter, motion, rest, space, time. |
| Pluralism | |
| Where does knowledge come from? | Knowledge comes from Jinas who are humans that obtain knowledge, sensory, scripture, clairvoyance, telepathy, and omniscience – “Knowledge is the nature of the soul.” |
| Who is omniscient? | A liberated soul – omniscient siddha. |
| Who created the universe? | No one, the universe is eternal |
| Who is transcendent? | A liberated soul |
| Who or what is uncaused? | The universe |
| Who identifies ultimate reality? | Self |
| Who knows absolute truth? | Self |
| Where do morals come from? | Karma particles |
| Who is the judge? | Karma |
Knowledge, Truth, and Verification Problem
I love the Marvel Universe, I have been reading Marvel comics since I was 12. These comics basically got me through high school. I was Wolverine, the warrior. I was Silver Surfer, who broke the bonds of Galactus and roamed free across the cosmos, putting wrong things right.
Stan Lee and Marvel comics developed this grand cosmos with figures like Eternity, Master Order, and Lord Chaos. They had a whole system of how their universe functioned and came into being. However, let me ask you, is it the truth?
Most people know Marvel comics mythology is like Greek or Roman mythology. In fact, Marvel incorporates characters like Hercules and Thor, the god of Thunder. Human minds are a wonder for story, imagination, and theory. We ask questions like:
- How did we get here?
- Why is there something rather than nothing?
- What is my purpose?
- How is the universe ordered?
Plus, offering speculative answers to the question I seek, what happens after we die? When I began my search for God and truth in college, I came to a point where I had to evaluate various religions.
When I came to evaluating eastern religions, in this case, Jainism, I will admit I did not spend a long time contemplating the nuances of the religion and learning every single teaching. I probably spent as much time as I did on considering becoming an atheist, which was less than a month.
First, I noticed that Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism all share a karmic backbone for salvation or liberation, whatever you wish to call it. In addition, since they differed on whether God exists, all three could not all be true. It must be one or none.
Karmic cycle
Jainism I discarded for three primary reasons.
The first main problem is what I call the knowledge and verification problem. For Jainism, my understanding is that knowledge is believed to come from the self. That our souls are each eternal, and we proceed through this Karmic cycle of reincarnation, hoping for liberation from the body.
My question is, how do we know when we’ve achieved liberation? Knowledge is obtained from the self during a process of liberation. So that means that each individual’s reasoning or insights about the universe arise from our own minds.
However, since each person is delusional or has limited knowledge until they are free, how did we ever get this knowledge? Especially considering the principle of non-absolutism, if “our limitations of knowledge dictate a style of relativity,” then how is this knowledge any different than imagination?
Human souls, once liberated from the body, become omniscient and know everything. Okay, so this soul would be a type of god, and there can be hundreds or thousands of these liberated souls. Have any of them spoken? From what I can find, 24 have spoken.
In addition, if one of them did speak, how would they prove they are omniscient and have all power? Communication verification of an individual is relatively simple. But how do you verify that knowledge is from an all-knowing liberated soul 3000 years later? Miracles?
I didn’t see them, that’s their word. Explanation of the universe? Marvel comics or any great imagination has that. An amazing leap in knowledge or discovery in the observable human world? Or what if they shared something the average person would not know, like reading minds?
I could accept that. What if they shared knowledge about an event that would take place hundreds of years in the future? I could accept that. But I can find no verification of these types of events.
Okay. I understand that once this liberated soul is free from the body and has this wonderful bliss, they don’t want to return to be encumbered by human worries and issues. But if they have all knowledge and they are free from the karmic cycle, wouldn’t they know the suffering of humankind?
Wouldn’t they want to verify that this karmic system is correct? Maybe I am reading purpose into an omniscient, omnipotent liberated soul, but here is the issue: Jainism arose as an offshoot of Hinduism with a different history by beings who had all-knowledge, who passed on that knowledge to humans, but did not provide enough proof to verify this knowledge.
Anybody can develop any theory they want, but you need proof to back it up. Provide some external evidence. The Jainism claim is right faith and right belief? If a celestial started emerging from the earth’s core then died, if Thanos blinked half the human population away, I think suddenly many people are going to believe in the Marvel universe pantheon.
To me, Jainism has a problem with the verification of their claimed truth. I want verified evidence of communication from these liberated souls or omniscient humans before they die.
All-knowledge – The Many and the One Venn Diagram
There is another issue with the Jainist view. If all knowledge is granted to liberated human souls, but these souls are still independent, then how can one have all knowledge? If I know everything in the entire universe, but the other soul is independent, I must know their thoughts too.
If I know the thoughts of the other liberated soul, then I would have all knowledge. However, does the all-knowledge involve the future of humanity and the universe? If the knowledge involves all future events, then each independent soul would know humanity’s future.
If these independent souls are separate beings and have the ability to act, the hundreds of souls would either know the liberated soul’s prior actions or would not know the actions.
If each liberated soul knew the prior actions of another soul and all the thoughts of the other soul, then these beings would in effect be one mind in action for no liberated being could act in any other way than what is already known.
If the liberated souls did not know the prior actions of the other liberated souls, then they do not have all-knowledge and can be deceived. You cannot rationally have multiple all-knowing, timeless, all-powerful, independent (nondependent) beings.
Therefore, if the liberated souls maintain their independence, then their knowledge depends on another liberated soul, in which case they are not all knowing. If the liberated soul maintains all knowledge, then they know the thoughts and actions of the other soul.
In which case, they lose their independence and become one mind. To maintain that these liberated souls are completely independent and all-knowing is irrational.
Therefore, based on these issues of knowledge and verification and based upon the irrational view of liberated souls, I declined to evaluate Jainism any further. Consider the following summary of ideas:
- Jainism maintains you are your own cause and your own effect, and it is by your own effort and exertion that you can reap results, good or bad. If there is an ultimate cause, it is within you and not outside you. You are, therefore, your own master, your own god.
- Having been freed from all notions of association with matter and bondage, the liberated souls (muktas) enjoy unlimited consciousness, infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite power, and infinite joy. The ordinary beings who are bound to the world suffer from ignorance and delusion. They remain bound to their gross bodies and nature until they are liberated.
- Some foolish men declare that a creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised and should be rejected.
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- Jainism provides an illogical path for humans to obtain godhood through our own power where no single god exists.
- Why is that significant?
- The being we are searching for does not exist in Jainism.
- If you agree, the next steps.
- If you disagree, please consider reading.
References and Links
- Articles Factory – Karma and Reincarnation
- Jaina – The Jain Path of Liberation
- Jain World – 24 Tirthankaras
- Jaina – The Theory of Knowledge in Jainism