If one were to understand what a certain religion thought about God, they could formulate a clear recognition of that religion’s thoughts about man, sin, and salvation while developing a well-informed speculation on their ideals and practices. For many of these beliefs and practices are subsidiary to the principle of God.
Both Hinduism and Jainism have — most certainly — an elaborate and intricate concept of God and both are religions practiced primarily on the Indian subcontinent. Though, while having a good deal in common, the two religions’ concepts of God are exceptionally and fundamentally different.
Hinduism's God
First the Hinduism God, which — in A. S. Woodburne’s article The Idea of God in Hinduism — is synopsized, saying, “In attempting to summarize some of the important elements in the Hindu idea of God, it ought first to be said that it would be more correct to speak of Hindu ideas of God, for the history of that religion discloses an astonishing large variety of ideas. Polytheism, henotheism, pantheism, and monotheism are all to be found within Hinduism.”
These Hindu “ideas” of God include Vishnu, the supreme god in Hindu’s Vaishnavite tradition; Krishna, either the Supreme Being and/or an avatar of Vishnu; Brahma, the Hindu god of creation; Shiva, one of the five primary forms of god in the Smarta tradition of Hinduism; or Shakti, the form of divine feminine creative power is worshiped as the Supreme Being in varying traditions of Hindu. These varying forms of a Hindu God vary by tradition, upbringing, and geographical region.
An analogy could be that Hinduism is much like Christianity in that it has varying forms and traditions (i.e. Methodism, Baptism, Catholicism, etc) and it would parallel Christianity if the varying Christian traditions all worshiped different figures from the Bible as being the Supreme God.
The Hindu idea of God can be explicated as “God is one, but also many,” a perfect yet bewildering explanation. He manifests himself in countless forms and shapes while being invested and omnipresent in all things. All Hindu deities are manifests of Him and there explains the varying traditions and the different deities they worship.
Jainism's God
Jainism has a fundamentally different view of God in their tradition — they don’t believe in an all-pervading, omnipotent, and eternal entity that created the world. Paradoxical as it may sound, while the Jain faith does not believe in a Supreme Being it would be wrong to classify their faith as being atheistic.
The Jain concept of “God” is that of the unchanging traits of the universe governed by natural laws and sanctity of existence. All souls are eternal and intrinsically divine and their relationship with the world and reality is one that cannot be denied. In the Akaranga Sutra, or the Jainism religious text, it makes clear the unending connection between the human soul and reality. “He who denies the world, denies his self; and he who denies his self, denies the world.”
So in Jainism, God is “replaced” by individual souls that are eternal, indestructible, and uncreated who inhabit reality and the universe which is also uncreated, indestructible, and eternal that goes through cycles of moral refuse followed by sacred recuperation. This concept of God in Jainism is far reaching in its tradition, but like Hinduism the Jain practice was, for a time, similar in some divinity-related aspects.
Compare and Contrast Jainism and HInduism
Both Jainism and Hinduism impact the other because of their popularity in the same region: India. Like all religions that occupy such close quarters, they inevitably and frequently influence each other to differing extents. It is true that in some period in history a short time after the conception and rapid popularity of Hinduism in India, some Jains began to worship Krishna. This devotional worship of a god in Jainism led to a new sect of the religion. However this development was due to the influence of Hinduism and was unable to make its way into true Jain tradition and practice.
While the overall concept of “God” is extremely different in the two traditions of Jainism and Hinduism, one remarkably similar practice cannot be ignored. One of the interesting aspects of the two religions in question (and in most eastern traditions for that matter) is the idea that one can be atheistic and yet religious. A concept so alien to the western world that it is difficult for many in the western tradition to accept the opinion as sensible, but in both Jainism and Hinduism the belief in God is not a prerequisite to practice religion. What is more important is the idea of personal salvation through righteous conduct, an idea prevalent in most eastern religions.
To Achieve Salvation for Hindus and Jains
The two aspects of God in both religions are so different that they — in the case of salvation — have something in common. While the god in Hinduism is a huge enigma that is unfathomable to people even in the religion and the idea of god in Jainism is non-existent both traditions rely primarily on righteous conduct from the individual to achieve salvation.
So while the idea and concept of God is the essential doctrine in all faith, in eastern traditions the doctrine of personal salvation and excellence holds more water than most traditions outside the region. When looking at the concept of God and salvation on both Jainism and Hinduism though, the strikingly different views of God come as a shock until the similar view of salvation and personal righteousness is explained.
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