Please read Fisher, pages 120-133.
There are around 5-8 Million practitioners of Jain religion in the world living mainly in India. There are also smaller numbers in East Africa, England and North America. In North America, the Jain believers normally share space with Hindus in the Hindu temple! There are also some exclusively Jain centres in North America!
Though, in terms of numbers, it may look an insignificant religious group but their impact on other religions is greater than their size! The atheistic Jain religion is known for its emphasis in ethical living!
To read one-page document on Jain Symbol click on:
http://www.jainworld.com/education/jainsymbol.htm
To read Sacred Scriptures of the Jain religion click on:
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/jainscripts/jainscripts.asp
A. Tirthankara
1. Tirthankara is one of the central concepts of Jain religion!
There are around 5-8 Million practitioners of Jain religion in the world living mainly in India. There are also smaller numbers in East Africa, England and North America. In North America, the Jain believers normally share space with Hindus in the Hindu temple! There are also some exclusively Jain centres in North America!
Though, in terms of numbers, it may look an insignificant religious group but their impact on other religions is greater than their size! The atheistic Jain religion is known for its emphasis in ethical living!
To read one-page document on Jain Symbol click on:
http://www.jainworld.com/education/jainsymbol.htm
To read Sacred Scriptures of the Jain religion click on:
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/jainscripts/jainscripts.asp
A. Tirthankara
1. Tirthankara is one of the central concepts of Jain religion!
2. Lord Mahavira (Vardhamana Mahavira) was the twenty-fourth and the last Tirthankara who founded the Jain religion as we find it today 2500 years ago.
3. According to the Jain tradition there have been twenty-three Tirthankaras before Lord Mahavira, the first one being Lord Rishabha.
4. And according to Jain philosophy, all Tirthankaras were born as human beings but they have attained a state of perfection, or enlightenment through self-discipline and self-realization. They are also known as Jinas, the victors – those who have mastered and conquered the “self”!
5. The word Thirthankara means, “ford makers” so that others can cross the ocean of samsara, the birth-death cycle! Some, the Svetambara, Jains believe the nineteenth Tirthankara Malli is a woman. The Jain community – monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen – are known as Tirthas!
B. Vardhamana Mahavira
1. Mahavira was born in 599 B.C.E as a prince in Bihar, India. At the age of 30, he left his family and royal household, gave up his worldly possessions, including clothing and become a monk. But prior to that he was obedient to his parents and served them with great faith and devotion. He was an able statesman. He did not marry.
2. After he renounced his throne he spent the next twelve years in meditation to conquer his inner desires. He fasted for long periods. He practiced extreme forms of ahimsa.
3. His ascetic life and meditation practices have now become model for monks and nuns. He is believed to have pursued this path for twelve years before he became enlightened.
4. He spent the next thirty years as an itinerant preacher spreading the truth he had discovered.
5. Vardhamana Mahavira is not the founder of Jainism. He revised the Jain doctrines that existed prior to him. He was more a reformer than the founder of the faith. Mahavira was the twenty-fourth, and like the others, is claimed to have been omniscient.
6. In his teachings he provided his people a way of liberation from the cycle of birth, life, pain, misery, and death, and achieve a blissful state.
7. At the age of 72 (527 B.C.E) Mahavira died and achieved complete liberation. He became a Siddha, a pure consciousness, a liberated soul.
C. Jain Object of Worship
1. The idols of twenty-four Tirthankaras in Jain temples are the same because they represent the virtues of Tirthankaras and not the physical body. However, at the bottom of each idol a unique symbol is placed to differentiate them.
2. Lord Mahavira’s idol is recognized by the symbol of a lion.
D. Jain Deity
1. According to Jain philosophy the universe and all its substances are eternal. The universe has no beginning or end.
2. There is also no need to create or manage the universe. Universe is self-sufficient and runs own its own according to the inherent cosmic laws.
3. Hence the Jain practitioners do not believe in God or god as a creator, provider, and destroyer of the universe.
4. When a human being overcomes all his karmas and possesses perfect knowledge and is in a blissful state he becomes omniscient and omnipotent, worthy to be worshipped as God of Jain religion.
4. And according to Jain philosophy, all Tirthankaras were born as human beings but they have attained a state of perfection, or enlightenment through self-discipline and self-realization. They are also known as Jinas, the victors – those who have mastered and conquered the “self”!
5. The word Thirthankara means, “ford makers” so that others can cross the ocean of samsara, the birth-death cycle! Some, the Svetambara, Jains believe the nineteenth Tirthankara Malli is a woman. The Jain community – monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen – are known as Tirthas!
B. Vardhamana Mahavira
1. Mahavira was born in 599 B.C.E as a prince in Bihar, India. At the age of 30, he left his family and royal household, gave up his worldly possessions, including clothing and become a monk. But prior to that he was obedient to his parents and served them with great faith and devotion. He was an able statesman. He did not marry.
2. After he renounced his throne he spent the next twelve years in meditation to conquer his inner desires. He fasted for long periods. He practiced extreme forms of ahimsa.
3. His ascetic life and meditation practices have now become model for monks and nuns. He is believed to have pursued this path for twelve years before he became enlightened.
4. He spent the next thirty years as an itinerant preacher spreading the truth he had discovered.
5. Vardhamana Mahavira is not the founder of Jainism. He revised the Jain doctrines that existed prior to him. He was more a reformer than the founder of the faith. Mahavira was the twenty-fourth, and like the others, is claimed to have been omniscient.
6. In his teachings he provided his people a way of liberation from the cycle of birth, life, pain, misery, and death, and achieve a blissful state.
7. At the age of 72 (527 B.C.E) Mahavira died and achieved complete liberation. He became a Siddha, a pure consciousness, a liberated soul.
C. Jain Object of Worship
1. The idols of twenty-four Tirthankaras in Jain temples are the same because they represent the virtues of Tirthankaras and not the physical body. However, at the bottom of each idol a unique symbol is placed to differentiate them.
2. Lord Mahavira’s idol is recognized by the symbol of a lion.
D. Jain Deity
1. According to Jain philosophy the universe and all its substances are eternal. The universe has no beginning or end.
2. There is also no need to create or manage the universe. Universe is self-sufficient and runs own its own according to the inherent cosmic laws.
3. Hence the Jain practitioners do not believe in God or god as a creator, provider, and destroyer of the universe.
4. When a human being overcomes all his karmas and possesses perfect knowledge and is in a blissful state he becomes omniscient and omnipotent, worthy to be worshipped as God of Jain religion.
5. Followers of Jain religion do not believe in one God but in innumerable and ever increasing gods. Every human being has a potential to become God of the Jain religion.
E. Prayer of Jain religion
1. Jains bow their heads to recite the Namaskar Mantra – see below, a universal prayer that seeks no materiel benefits from any one. All work and events begin with this prayer.
2. This prayer is not addressed to a specific Tirthankara, or a monk by name. It is a common salutation to the Thirthankaras. Jains believe they receive the inspiration to walk in the right path that leads to happiness and freedom from the miseries of life.
3. The Namaskar Mantra in translation includes the following lines:
“I bow to the perfect spiritual victors
I bow to the liberated souls
I bow to the leaders of the Jain order
I bow to the learned preceptors
I bow to all saints and sages everywhere in the world …”
Questions to Explore:
1. Who is a Tirthankara? Discuss the role of Tirthankaras in the Jain religion.
2. What basic values do you learn from the story of Bahubali (found in page 123 of the Fisher’s text)? How similar is this story to the epic of Mahabharata?
3. Draw a Jain symbol and explain its various features.
