Dr Satish K Kapoor

Jainism is not the  child of  Hinduism as Christianity is of Judaism, nor a reactionary religious movement. Its history goes back to the beginning of time. The supreme truths in the Jaina  faith were revealed to  twenty-four  tirthankaras  – ‘ford-finders’ – the ones who help one to cross the ocean of worldly existence’ – at  different  periods of  man’s evolution. The last tirthankara was Lord Mahavira who was born on Chaitra shukla Triyodashi – the thirteen day of bright half of the month of Chaitra – to Sidddhatha, chief of Kundagrama, a suburb of Vaishali (Bihar), and his wife,Trishala Priya Karini, daughter of king Chetaka of  Videha(Bihar), in c. 599 BCE.

Although a born-Prince  he renounced   worldly pleasures for   monastic-ascetic life, and achieved the supreme  spiritual state of a jina  He delivered the  message of  peace(satya), nonviolence (ahimsa), self restraint (samyama) and penance(tapa), in line with his predecessors. He laid stress on  reverence for all forms of life, even micro-organisms, and preached strict vegetarianism. He believed in equality and denounced.  man-made distinctions characterizing  the society of his time. Rejecting the materialism of Charvaka school  he argued  that the goal of human life is not to attain pleasure but to be perfect in every respect.

To quote Rabindra Nath Tagore : “Mahavira  proclaimed in India the message of salvation that religion is a reality and not a mere social convention, that salvation comes from taking refuge in that true religion, and not from observing the external ceremonies of the community, that religion cannot regard any barrier between man and man as an eternal verity.”

Deriving his philosophy from many millennia-old  Shramana (‘self-reliant’) tradition,  Mahavira focused on the elevation  of  the human consciousness. He regarded moral power as superior to physical power and derided superstitions, slavery and obnoxious  rituals like animal sacrifice, in the name of religion. Centuries before medieval  bhakti reformers, Mahavira  rejected such religious customs as bathing in sacred rivers and oceans to cast off sins, going round  trees or  climbing up mountains  considered sacred, to gain virtue, setting up heaps of sand and stones as objects of worship, annihilating oneself  by falling from a precipice or being burnt up in fire as in case of widowed women( vide Ratna Karanda Shravakachara).

Mahavira emphasized the cultivation of the mind, the heart and the soul along the lines of truth, non-violence and righteousness, so as to turn hatred into love, love into compassion and compassion into social service.  To establish moral law in society he put forth the philosophy of Tri-ratna – three jewels – namely,  Right faith (samyaka shraddha), Right knowledge (samyaka  jnana) and Right conduct (samyaka acharna). He regarded deceit, greed, anger and pride as the causes of sin ( Sutra Kritanga). “Fight with yourself; why fight with external foes? He who conquers himself through himself will obtain happiness.” ( Uttaradhyayana Sutra).

Although the existence of a First cause or that of a creator-deity is absent in his cosmological scheme, he recognized the subtle essence underlying all substances, ‘conscious as well as unconscious, which becomes an eternal cause of all modifications and is termed God.’

Mahavira  laid down  panchamahavrata or five great vows  for  ascetics, namely, ahimsa, nonviolence, satya, truth, asteya, non-stealing, brahmacharya, continence,and aparigraha, freedom from worldly attachment. These vows  resemble  the five yamas or ‘restraints’ mentioned in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The Jaina contribution to  metaphysics includes its concept of  the  self-existent and timeless Reality; its bheda-abheda doctrine which recognizes both different (bheda) and identical (abheda) perspectives, its nine categories namely, jiva, living being or soul, ajiva, non-living being, punya, good deeds, papa, evil deeds; ashrava, influx of karma, bandha,  bondage of  karma, samvara, stoppage of inflow of karma; nirjara, eradication of karmic matter, and moksha, salvation; its six-fold division of dravyas, substances, namely jiva, soul, pudgala, matter, dharma, principle of motion, adharma, principle of rest,  akasha, space ( together called panchastikaya) and kala, time; its four-fold division of souls– deva, gods, jivas, living beings, tiryaks, lower animals and the vegetable kingdom and narakas, lower regions.

The atomic theory of Jainism which propounds that an atom (paramanu) is indivisible and indestructible and  has colour, flavor and taste; that the aggregate of atoms (skandha) in various modes and combinations change the taxonomy of objects, comes closer to the view of scientists.

The Jaina theory of five kinds of knowledge namely, mati, ordinary cognition, shruti, testimony, avadhi, inner perception, manahparyaya, capability to read the mind of others, and kevala or pratyaksha jnana, perfect or direct knowledge, has added a new dimension to the domain of  Epistemology.

Likewise, the seven modes of predication (saptabhangi), called also seven nayas or standpoints, namely, syadasti( ‘perhaps is’) , syadnasti (‘perhaps is not’), syadasti-nasti ( ‘perhaps is and is not’), syada vaktavya ( ‘perhaps inexpressible’), syadasti avaktavya (‘perhaps is and is inexpressible’), syad nasty avaktavya ( ‘perhaps is not and is inexpressible’), syadasti-nasti avaktavya ( ‘perhaps, is not and is inexpressible’),  have contributed to the study of  Logic.

Jaina art as seen through its iconography, sculptures, paintings, stupas – hemispherical structures – decorated manuscripts, mystic diagrams, and  temples spread all over India, is aesthetic, meaningful,  and magnificent.

The Jaina concept of moksha as a state of freedom which renders infinite joy, infinite freedom, and infinite bliss has enriched  the theology of salvation. The rejection of dogma in Jainism and the acceptance of different points of view (anekantavada), are the  salient features of  Jaina ethos that remain relevant . So is the principle of  nonviolence in thought, word and deed, which Mahatma Gandhi adopted in his fight against the British Raj.

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Dr Satish K Kapoor  is  a former British Council Scholar in History,  and a  former Registrar, DAV University, Jalandhar City.

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