| Jainism |
Mahavir Jain Mahavir is the 24th Tirthankara (Arihant) of Jain religion. Jainism existed before Mahavir, and his teachings were based on those of his predecessors. Thus, unlike Buddha, Mahavir was more of a reformer of an existing religion than the founder of a new faith. According to Jain philosophy, all Tirthankaras were born as human beings but they attained enlightenment through meditation and self-realization. Mahavir was born to king Siddharth of Kshatriyakundagrama, (near Vaishali, Bihar) in 599 BC. He was brought up as a Jain. At the age of 30, he left his family and royal household, gave up his worldly possessions, including clothing and become a monk. He spent the next twelve years in deep silence and meditation to conquer his desires and feelings. He went without food for long periods. After 12 years of extreme asceticism, he attained kevala, the highest stage of perception. He spent the next thirty years traveling bare feet around India preaching the eternal truth. He attracted people from all walks of life, rich and poor, kings and commoners, men and women, princes and priests. He organized his followers into a four fold order, namely Sadhu, Sadhvi, Shravak, and Shravika. |
| Teachings of Mahavir Mahavir preached that samyak-darshana (right faith), samyak-dnyana (right knowledge), and samyak-charitra (right conduct) together help attain the liberation of one's self. Samyak-charitra is following the five great vows: Ahimsa - Nonviolence Satya - Truthfulness Asteya - Not stealing Brahmacharya - Chastity Aparigraha - Non-attachment |
| A wealth of additional information can be found on this page. Jainism |
| Jainism is an ancient religion from India that teaches that the way to liberation and bliss is to live lives of harmlessness and renunciation. The essence of Jainism is concern for the welfare of every being in the universe.Jains believe that all plants, animals, insects as well as human beings, contain living souls (jiva). Each of these souls, whatever species it may be in, is considered of equal value and should be treated with respect and compassion. This leads Jains not only to treat humans of every race or gender equally, but also to live in partnership with the environment and other species. So Jains are strict vegetarians and live in a way that minimises their use of the world's resources. |
| Jains believe in reincarnation and seek to attain ultimate liberation which means escaping that continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth so that the immortal soul lives for ever in a state of bliss, with no attachments or desires. Liberation is achieved by eliminating all karma from the soul - karma sticks to the soul as the result of bad thoughts, or behaviour. Each soul has to achieve liberation through its own efforts: Jainism is a religion of self-help in which there are no gods or spiritual beings that will help human beings on the road to liberation. The three guiding principles of Jainism (called the "three jewels") are right faith, right knowledge and right conduct |
| Much writing about Jainism is devoted to the Jain code of living rightly, but it is very important to understand that what a person does physically is no more important than what a person does mentally and that both right mental and right physical living are essential for a person to achieve the Jain goal of ultimate liberation . Jainism has no priests. Its professional religious people are monks and nuns, who lead strict and ascetic lives. Jain lay people should live their lives according to the Jain principles but less strictly than the ascetics. Most Jains live in India, where the latest census found 3.2 million Jains. |