Jainism

Jainism was founded by Mahavira who was born about 580 B.C. in Northern India. It has 4 million followers in India. He preached atheism or the absence of god. Jainism also believes that one can achieve salvation (freedom from wheel of life i.e. rebirth). Jains use the word Karma to mean a substance that binds the soul to physical world. By causing sins you keep accumulating Karma whereas meditation and fasting burns the Karma. One can get freedom from rebirth (Salvation) only after burning the Karma accumulated in past lives. Mahavira laid down five ways to get rid of wheel of life:

Do not destroy life
Speak the truth
Be celibate
Own nothing
Accept nothing that is not freely given

Jainism is the religion of the followers of jin, the victor or Mahavira who had conquered his lower nature and realized the highest. He was actually Vardhamana, a contemporary of Budha and born in the home, at Vaishali, of kastriya chieftain king Sdhartha in Magadha, the modern Bihar. He was said to be bom in 599 B.C. and died at Papa in 527 B.C. At the age of 28 he started his spiritual career and for 12 years he led a life of austarities, even remaining naked. At the end of these 12 years of self-mortification he attained his Kelvaliship of final liberation, when he was recognised as the prophet or the Tirthanakara or founder or the faith of the Jains. He was really the 24th Tirthankara or prophet and the last, as before him 23 other Tirthankaras had been there from 1st Century B.C. He was more the reformer if not the originator of the Jain faith and the last 30 or so years of his life were spent in preaching and organizing his order of ascetics. The real founder of Jainism, in fact, is said to be the 1st Tirthanakara Rasabh Deva in the 1st century B.C. the father of King Bharata among the jains. There were two traditions from early days among the Jains, one was to deny worldly possessions completely even clothes and go about naked as it was believed that those possessed any property even clothes could not reach Nirvana. The other tradition was that extreme renunciation like discarding clothes was not necessary. Vardhaman's influence made the followers of other creeds join his order, though the great schism or division among the Jains as Digambors (skyclad or nude) and swetamber (white robed) took place in 70 or 80 A.D. The Digambers believed that no women could attain liberation and so Vardhaman is said to have remained unmarried. The Digambers do not accept the religious books of the swetambers and they have no books of their own. The Jain scriptures are 45 in number called the Sidhanta like the Budh Pitakas. These were collected by Bhadrabaka in the 3rd and 4th century B.C. There were orally remembered till were put in writing. The well known Amarkosha is one great Jain scripture. Philosophically Jainism is Dualistic. It believes that Prakriti or outer world which is analyzable into atoms was self-existing and eternal without a beginning or end. It is not created by God as the jains do not believe in God the creator as they argue that if God himself created the universe, who created god himself? Side by side with Prakriti is the jiva or soul. In fact jains believe that every material thing like fire, wind, plants, leaves, insects and animals had souls and it was horrifying to take life in any form and so sacrifices were bad and hence shunned and since people offered sacrifice to propitiate God, God himself was denied as he was neither responsible for sorrows of life nor could he redeem us. One had to struggle himself for liberation with austerity inwards and outwards. Liberation meant not being in the state of nothingness but being pure without qualities and relations and being free from rebirth.

The objective realities were there beyond and beside consciousness and were apprehended by perception and were understood by intelligence. The objects are not modified by the process of knowing and knowing is by the self or soul which knows itself also in the process of knowing. The objects are one in their universal aspects and many in their particular aspect because of location, form, time and matter. But we cannot affirm or deny absolutely anything because of the endless complexity of things. All things are existent as well as non-existent as we are not sure of their absoluteness. Things exist but are relative to one another and their plurality is the half truth as there is the substance as the substratum and the inherent essence of all things. The outer world and jiva are two independent beings run parallel to each other and one affects the other not because of interactionism but because of pre-established harmony. But really speaking there can not be any agreement between idea and reality unless there is a common factor between them and this points towards absolutism. Still the soul has its self-identity which it preserves even in the ultimate condition and material things continue to exist as matter, though as particular things they change as being is alterable in its nature, but substance is not, which is inherent essence of all things which are created or produced. They exist or stay as such for sometime and are then destroyed. The qualities or 'gun' can not exist by themselves, they exist or inhere in the substance as materiality is the quality or gun of atoms. The physical objects are apprehended by senses and they consist of atoms or Parmanus. The Jainism atoms are homogeneous and different elements are formed by varying combination though Nayavisesake hold that there are as many kinds of atoms as are the elements. So according to Jainism, the whole universe of being is consituted by two ever lasting, unrelated, coexisting and independent realities of jiva and Ajiva; one is the enjoyer and the other enjoyed. Jiva has consciousness and Ajiva; or Jada (^ff) has no consciousness but it can be touched seen, smelt and tasted. The animate beings are composed of soul and body, the soul being eternal. Ajiva are of 2 categories one with form or (sTFFiK) and the other as formless. The formless are like space and time, Dharma and adharam. The jiva can be simple or more complex according to the senses developed. In some jiva there is only the sense of touch in more developed like men, there are 5 senses along with the 6th i.e. mind or reasoning as man is a rational animal.

The universe or Sansar is nothing but for the entanglement of jiva in matter and the liberation of jiva from this entanglement is called Moksha which is the goal of all human efforts and endeavour. The soul is bound to the body due to wrong belief, non-renunciation, carelessness, passions and wrong karma and before liberation the soul continues to move in the circle of Sansar by taking re-birth. The soul, according to its development may be re-born as an animal or as again in the form of a human being or as one in the divine Kingdom. The liberation of the soul or Nirvana is through what the jains call the three ratna or jewels, one ratna is of faith in the victor or Mahabir, the 2nd is of knowledge of his doctrines and of the real nature of things without doubt or error. The third jewel is right and perfect conduct which consists in an attitude of neutrality without desire or aversion towards objects and pleasure of the eternal world. These three or triratna constitute the path for liberation. Right and perfect conduct means essentially five things. The first is ahinsa or kindness towards all inanimate and animate existences; or peace with all and patience or avoiding of all harm and suffering even to the lowest creature. For this some Jains even sweep the floor with a broom of cotton threads lest any insect should be killed, they also wear a veil on the mouth and nose for fear of inhaling a living organism. They strain water and reject honey lest any organism is swallowed. The second is truthfulness in all circumstances or to be true to one's self. The third virtue is honesty and no stealing, cheating or grabbing. The fourth virtue is chastity or purity in words, thought and action. The fifth-virtue is renunciation of all worldly desires, interests, passions and hankerings. A degree of withdrawing from and not involvement in worldly things is required for peace of mind which is an essential condition for liberation. Besides these positive virtues the papa or sins of covetousness, anger, conceit, averice, hatred, quarrel, slander, defamation, lack of self-control, hypocrisy etc. are to be avoided. The punya or good deeds are also like giving food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the poor and shelter to the needy and homeless like the monk. Sin or papa is not any offence against God but it is against man. There is no interference by God in man's efforts as man himself is master of his destiny and is his own friend or foe. He is responsible for his own actions and can make or mar his own career and future by his conduct. The order of the universe, of which man is a part, will bless the struggling hero than the whims of a capricious God. The hero gets benefit from meditation or self-absorption since meditation gives strength for fulfilling the vows than prayer to God, who is not the creator, or destroyer of the universe which exists and subsists by itself. Fire will burn and water will cool without the will of God and evn if God wills water cannot burn and fire cannot cool. Such is not the law of nature. Every substance has it own functions and attributes which is its Dharma and it needs no creator. If there was a creator then this creator will need its own creator and so on regressively to infinity.

Some souls by self-efforts and by fulfilling all the vows reach a state of divinity or perfection and deification. These are to the Jains, Arhats or supreme lords, the omniscient souls the parmatman and God can be the name given to this highest, the noblest, the fullest manifestation of the powers which lie latent in the soul of man. So all perfect men are divine, God like and all are equal.

There is no scope for Bhakti or devotion in Jainism. But some weak persons develop devotion or Bhakti towards the Tirthankara, without any valid reason or logic. But in ordinary man religious yearning is to submit to a higher being and to seek its blessings, grace and help for his comforts and fulfillment of his desire in this life and a secure place in heaven after death. So for the satisfaction of the religious aspirations Mahabir became the deity for worship and temples were erected with his idol installed. Some Jains adopted Krishna as the deity and were called Vaisnavas. Some other Hindu gods also crept in Jainism, as the simple religion without gods did not appeal to the masses and many compromises were made.

Nirvana, is Jainism is not annihilaton of the soul. It is an escape from body but not from existence. In Nirvan the soul enters an endless blessedness leaving all emotions, qualities, desires, relations, interest, traits and the body and rebirth. It is a state of absolute quiet, rest and changelessness and enduring peace. It has infinite conciousness, pure understanding, absolute freedom and eternal bliss. The liberated souls interpellate on account of their oneness of status, they can be infinite without mutual exclusion. They go upward because of all relations and bondage with this world are broken.

In jainism there are said to be 5 types of Sidha souls (1) Tirthanakara (2) The arhats of perfect soul, who wait the attainment of nirvana (3) the acharyas or heads of ascetic group (4) The upadhyayas of teachings saints and (5) The Sadhus the class which includes the rest of the Sidha souls. These different shades of the developed souls is due to the degree of purity acquired or due to the amount of weight of matter or of the wodly things, still binding them or pulling them down.

As a criticism of the idea of infinite souls of the Jains, it can be said that the pure spirits interpenetrating on account of their oneness of status can not remain exclusive or separate. They seems to be one in their ultimate reality and purity and there is thus the absoluteness of the pure soul and a unity of them as the world spirit as is conceived of in Vendanta. The female ascetics observing the rights of pious conduct have the duty to visit the Jain households and to see that the females there are educated and instructed by them. This is the Jain practice which others should emulate and educate their womenfolk and there cannot be any nobler vocation.

The ascetics die by starvation as they do not wait until death overtakes them. When they find that their body is no longer useful and is making on progress, they have to put it aside and pass out of the world by death by voluntary starvation. Jainism is a noble religion, as it wants peace all round, peace with smallest creatures peace with fellow human beings, giving them no occasion for suffering, physically or mentally as their behavior is so quiet, silent and subdued without any trace of aggression and hostility. The self is to be subdued and egoism is replaced by altruism and there is love for all and giving offence to none.