Jainism: Religion And Philosophy

Jainism is one of the religion in India. The head of the religion is called as Tirthankar. Tirthankar means guide, the one who guides the religion. There were 24 tirthankars in Jainism.

Among tirthankars, Rishabhdev was the first tirthankar. It is said that he lived for 592 x 10^8 years and had a height of 1200ft. It is scientifically impossible but it is a belief.

Vardhaman Mahavir was the 24th tirthankar of Jainism. In ancient India there were clans who were ruling all over. Mahavir Jain was from one of the kshatriya clan named Jnatrika. These clans rule their kingdom with discussion among their clan.

Vardhaman Mahavir was son of king Siddhartha. He left his home at the age of 30 and started meditation in search of knowledge. After 12 years of meditation, he found the Divine knowledge also known as Kaivalya. He started preching his thoughts in the villages and towns around the ganga and yamuna rivers and then travelled towards Western India. He attained Nirvana in pavapuri of Bihar at the age of 72.

In Jainism there are three paths of salvation also known as tri ratnas. Samyak darshan(Right faith), samyak gyan (right knowledge), samyak charitra(right action). There are also seven fundamental elements given by Vardhaman Mahavir. They are as follows:

1. Jiva2. Ajivaa3. Asarava 4.Bandha 5.Samvara 6. Nirjara 7. Moksha.
In Jainism there are panch mahavratas named as no lie, no stealing, non violence, no property, observe continuence.

The Jainism is considered as non violence as they walk, they sweep the floor so that no insect should be harmed. They wear mask on their faces so that bacteria is not spread in the environment.

There are two branches in Jainism- Digambar and Shwetamber
Digambar means, the sky is our cloth and we don't need another cloth.
Shwetamber means white cloth.
In Jainism, they recognised existence of God, but they believe that the one who has mastered kaivalya is much more recognised. They condemned the Varna system and discarded Sanskrit.

The jains believe that everything possesses a soul and it is only through the purification of soul that one can achieve freedom and attain Nirvana. They believe that purification is possible through meditation, fasting and punishment of the body.

The concept of karma is a very important aspect of Jainism as they believe that human being can attain salvation only through good acts. To attain enlightenment, the soul should free itself from the bondage of body.

Due to famine in bihar, one group of jains migrated to the South and settled at shravanbelagola. Thus Jainism spread to the South and many works came to be written in kannada, Telugu and Tamil. Janna, Pampa, Ranna and Ponna are the famous poets of kannada and were also Jains.