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THE COSMIC MAN
The Cosmic Man
Thar God has a human form was a prevailing tenet of the pre-Christian Near East. Thc Hebrews, for example, though forbidden to produce graven images of their deity, nevertheless conceived of him as anthuopomorphic. Jehovah made the first man alter his own likeness, and we are all in human form. as descendants of Adam, because Jehovah has that form. Jehovah is the FIRST MAN, divine and eternal, whereas Adam is only the first man-made in the image of Jehovah, but of earth and consequently perishable. Jesus, finally, is the second man, or the MAN'S son, who came down to restore the perfection of the created image.
In contrast to these Near Eastern conceptions, which are of Sumcro-Semitic origin, the aboriginal, pre-Aryan Indian tradition-which is what is represented in the religion of the Jainasregards as the FIRST MAN not God (God distinct from matter, creating the universe out of matter as out of a second principle different from his own essence) but the organism of the universe itself. The entire cosmos, according to this belief, has a human form, never had a beginning, and will never end. Not "spirit" distinct from "matter," but "spiritual matter," "materialized spirit," is the FIRST MAN. The philosophy of Jainism, in this respect, is monistic.
In its analysis of the psychology and destiny of man, on the other hand, Jainisin is dualistic. The life-monad (jiva) is regarded as absolutely different from the "karmic matter" (a-jīva, "nonjīva") of the six colorings,67 by which it is bound down and withB7 Cf. supra, p. 229.
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