To understand better the somewhat odd concept of “nonliberated deities” in Jainism, it will help first to understand the Jain conception of deity, divinity, and “god,” as well as the connections between liberation and divinity.¹ At the heart of Jain metaphysics is the understanding that the world is fundamentally dualistic, divided between sentient self or “soul” (jīva, ātman) and insentient matter (a…