“The one who is Jain, never has faith in any other GOD except Jinendra”
Prologue and Disclaimer: On Interenet people were debating whether to follow the statement or not. As always, I had my opinion too. I want to clarify that this is my understanding of my religion, and these are not words of any Jain Tirthankar*. I also apologies in case I have hurt religious feeling of any individual as it was never a motive. It is mere attempt to present my understanding, not an expert’s opinion or words of wisdom.
We must understand the statement in full, before we say that we agree or not. According to Jainism, there is nothing like GOD. For Jainism Bhagwan not = GOD, the word Bhagwan is not used for any Jain Tirthankar with meaning GOD.
Jainism says that who ever attains the Moksha or becomes Siddh is equivalent to any Tirthankar with only diff that Tirthankars are Shashak for certain period, and they show us the correct path and remind us about right human values during that period.
Above statement means if you are Jain, you do not preach anybody falling in definition of GOD, it means that you only follow the way of life explained by our Tirthankars.
Primary reason to give statement is that Jainism considers lack of knowledge as sin, we must attain the complete knowledge to be called Jain, and hence if you are preaching any other person or idols or entities named as GOD, then it is mistake. And I mentioned earlier Jainism does not believe in concept of god.
