Caste. There is no question that the Jaina feel to be more critical than the intricate problem of caste in modern India. The one solvent that can ever weaken the grip of those iron fetters is the thought that, despite all barriers and all differences, we have been created by the same Father and are therefore all children of one family; but a philosophy that denies the Fatherhood of God is able to deny the brotherhood of man; and the notices on their temple gates show that there are no people in India more caste-bound than the Jaina.[1]
Mokṣa. The negation of a personal God affects also the Jaina idea of heaven. The Jaina, as we have seen, think of mokṣa as a bare place of inaction reached by those who through suffering and austerity have completely killed all their individuality and character and have finally snapped the fetters of rebirth. The Christian, like the Jaina, believes in a state whose bliss we shall never leave, but to the Christian heaven is also that sphere where the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and over which His will has absolute sway. There, in a golden atmosphere of happiness, the redeemed from all nations, with every power disciplined and developed, move without let or hindrance to accomplish the Divine will. There His servants serve Him, for they see His face. It is a land full of joy and singing, from which all sorrow has vanished, not because the character of its citizens has become so stultified that they can no more feel grief, but because the promise has been fulfilled that 'God Himself shall be with them, and be their God: and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more.…He that overcometh [the jina] shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.'[2]
