LORD MAHAVIRA By: Prof. Vaman H. Pandit

[Guest guest]

Sairam Today is Mahavir Jayanti

LORD MAHAVIRA

By:

Prof. Vaman

H. Pandit

Jainism is

a significant name in the Religions of India. Students of religions in India have paid there due

attention to its claim. It re­presents a theological mean between Brahamanism and Buddhism. It has made a distinct appeal

over the centuries in moulding the pattern of Indian

way of life. According to the last census report nearly 1800000 profess Jain

faith out of the total population of 439, 235,021.

PRE-ARYAN

RELIGIONS

But still greater temptations were set like

a trap for the old Aryan religion after the arrival of the Aryans in India. It is certain, that in India several races were settled before the arrival

of the Aryans, whose vestiges we recognise in some of

the Indian hillmen, e. g. Bhils,

Santals, Todas etc. At

present we know these tribes as Adivasis.

We do not know anything about

the religion of these pre-Aryan races or Adivasis of

India; but modern researches do confirm that they had some form of creed; still

we can make out several features of those religions by studying the popular

Indian religions of today and the sacred literature of the pre-historic times,

with the help, however, of comparative ethnography and with the help of the

monuments and antiquities which still exist in India - remnants of the old

period.

The result of these studies is

that the historians assume at-least two types of pre-Aryan religions in India. We are at a loss to know whether they have

been both animistic or one animistic and the other fetishistic, but we know

fairly well, how they manifested themselves. The- one type which has been

perhaps a fetishistic one by nature mani­fested itself by exuberant devotion,

accompanied by mystical excite­ment, becoming sometimes a real ecstasy. The

other one, surely of an animistic character was accompanied by strong

inclination to asceti­cism. Under the influence of these two elements the

original Aryan religion

developed in several sects or rather different religious schools, in which all

these elements, viz., intellectuality, formalism, devotion, bhakti

and asceticism, appear as indispensable constituent parts. Be­sides this, it is

not impossible that some influence of Christianity and Islam worked on the

developing of later sects.

To comprehend fully the impact

of Jainism, it was necessary to give in details an introductory background. And

now let us turn to Jainism and have a scholarly look at it. Jainism is

generally dealt with as an offspring of the religious currents started in India in the eighth century B. C. as an opposition

against the Brahmanic formalism, which in those times

led often to forms not always worthy to be called religion.

Various opinions have been

cited by the scholars but the oldest opinion is that Mahavira

is the founder of Jain religion, being himself an older contemporary of Buddha.

The current opinion, which is a fact is, that the Jain religion had been

started already by Parsvanatha, Mahavira

being only its reformer. But this Jain tradition teaches us something quite

different. According to it the Jain religion is eternal and there were several

reformers of this religion, who are identical with the twenty-four Tirthankaras. Who are Tirthankaras?

According to Jainism, the explanation given is that, a Tirthankara, is one who has

made, has founded, the four 'tirthas' What is a tirtha? Tirtha, derived from the

root tr, *to save', is they affirm, a technical term

indicating 'the means of salvation', the means par excellence; and the chaturvidha snagha, or that

'fourfold Communion' within which all who take refuge find ultimate salvation,

consists of four tirthas, or 'orders', namely, those

of (1) sadhu or monk, (2) sadhvi

or nun, (3) sravaka or lay-brother, and (4) sravika or lay-sister. These four tirthas

are thus, as it were, four boats that will infallibly carry the passengers they

bear unto the desired haven of deliverance (moksa).

Hence the Tirthankara is one who is the founder of

the FOUR ORDERS that collectively constitute the COMMUNION or Sangha.

STRIKING TRADITION

This Jain tradition ts striking one, and has surely a concrete fact behind

itself because no Indian tradition is without a background of reality. What is

the background of this tradition? It is a little difficult to understand it.

Some of the scholars of Jainism, think that Jainism

took some views from older animistic religions. And this opinion is not

unimportant as far as it refers to the Jain belief, that not only animals, but

also plants and even the minerals, have an animated substratum of life, ' " Jiva " .

It follows, therefore, that

Jainism is a very very old religion, for a scholar

can hardly suppose eternity of any religion, the roots of which reach back to

very remote past of the pre-Aryan races in India, which took from the Aryan

religion every-thing, that was the best or at least better than its own ideas,

and which had developed itself parallel to the Brahmanic

forms of the Aryan religion.

Jainism as a religion of the

masses can be dealt with only in its final form, viz., after the reform of Mahavira, or better in the present form as it is taught by

both the most important schools of Jainas, viz., the Svetambaras and the Digambaras.

The most important feature of Jainism is, that it has

overcome the Brahmanic scepticism

which was threatening the very roots of religion as well as the pure forma­lism

to which the Brahmanical rites sank at the time just

before the reform of Mahavira. And by means of Mahavira's reforms Jainism, although it did not spread as

much as Buddhism, was of much greater importance for India than the latter.

But the real value of Jainism

lies in its inner perfection which appears in the proportionate representation

of the religious elements so that none overruns the other. This is the feature,

in which all the Indian religions in general, but Jainism in particular, differ

from the other religions.

WHAT IS RELIGION?

Every religion consists mainly of three

elements, viz. the senti­mental element, the intellectual element, and the

practical element. In most of the religions the practical element, which

appears in the shape

of rites and ceremonies, overgrows the whole religion in such a way, that the other elements become only

subordinate addition, the sentimental element being still a favourite.

The cultivation of intellec­tual element is the special feature of the Aryan

religion. But only in Jainism all these elements are well-balanced, whilst in

the old Braha-manism and in Buddhism the cultivation

of the intellectual element is often exaggerated.

Jainism, in the first place of

importance, gives a dogmatical view of god. It is a

very natural one for a thinking being. The god according to the Jains is Paramatman, but not Ishvara, i.

e. the god is not a creator and ruler, but he is a perfect being, who

cannot be set back to the imperfect condition of this world, and as such is wor­shipful.

In so far as the Jain religion has shown the greatest subli­mity to do

everything in upholding the highest aim of intellectual element and still

remaining a religion with its typical features, of which the idea of god is the

indispensable one. Therefore the Jain religion can be called with full

authority the limit not only of the Aryan religion but of all religions

altogether.

And in this character of a

limit lies the great importance of the Jain religion. For, it

is the required upper limit, according to which we are able to judge of the

other human phenomena, whether they are still religious or not. But this

is not the only importance of Jainism but equally important are the Jain

metaphysics and Jain ethics, not to speak of its logic.

An example can be cited about

characteristic manifestation of this superiority of Jainism and that is the

theory of infinite numbers as it is dealt with in the Loka-Prakasa,

and which corresponds with the most modern mathematical theories And the theory

of identity of time and space is one of the problems, which are currently most

discussed by the scientists owing to Einstein's theory, and which are already

solved or prepared for solution in Jain metaphysics.

Yet another example can

be cited from the Jain ethics and that is of co-existence we mean, of happy

co-existence of all beings in the whole

world. Its solution in Jainism is a very simple one, but the only perfect one,

viz. in the commandment of ahimsa or non-injury, which is not only a theory but

moreover in practice stricter and more resolute, than the similar commandments

in the Christian religion. No nation in the world has given practical shape to

these two commandments than India. Mahatma Gandhi picked up the comman­dment of

Ahimsa.

And yet one more problem which is

dealt successfully by Jain ethics with simplicity and perfection is the problem

of sexual chas­tity. In modern parlance it is associated with our FAMILY PLANN­ING.

This is not only an ethical but moreover a biological and social problem of

very wide bearing. The efforts of a great political econo­mist Malthus, who promulgated his ideas in his important work,

viz. " An Essay on the Principle of Population " to solve the problem

after he had discovered the dangers of overcrowding the world by increasing

population, whilst he proved by statistics that the human race is increasing in

geometrical progression, the resources, however, only in an arithmetical

progression. Although outworn, this theory is the problem really existed in Europe, and that its solution has been already

attempted not only by religious reformers, but moreover by the scientists too. '

The Jain solution of the

problem is quite plain, removing the very root of the evil. It is that, what we

call brahmacharya. It would be out of place to go in

details on this subject here, but I would like to suggest for those who are

interested in this subject to read or to study the respective part of Adhyatma-Tattvaloka by Muni Nyaya vijaya.

The Jain religion is the limit of religion

in general and at the same time the limit of Aryan religion in particular. It

follows from the fact that the Jain religion is well balanced in respect of the

parti­cular religious elements, that is built up anthropocentrically and the

intellectual element is not pushed aside in it, but rather developed as far as

possible without injuring the essential of a religion. Undoubtedly it is one of

the most important developed religions because of its advanced view of

religious matters as well as the methods, for example, how to consider matters,

viz. Syadvada. It is the considera­tion of any

subject from different points of view in order to get the right knowledge of

the matter, and not to prove any wrong suppo­sition.

The services of Jainism to India are very great. In the sixth century before

Christ, which in so many countries witnessed an earn­est aspiration after

higher truths and nobler lives, the country of Bihar was strangely agitated by the teachings of many

religious re­formers who founded their own sects. Yet of all these ancient orders,

one only has survived in India down to the present day, and that one is the

Jainism founded whether by Mahavira himself or by his

repu­ted master Parsvanatha. Its first home was near Kashi (Banaras) or Varanasi, and thus lay to the east of that ‘holy

land' which was the seat of Vedic cult. But as the years passed it has migrated

westwards and northwards, with the remarkable consequence that today there are

no Jains in the land of its origin, elsewhere it is

still fairly well represented. The mercantile communities of Gujarat and Marwar owe all

their prosperity and enterprise to Jainism.

(Source Sai Leela August 1974)