Here is your short essay on Jainism

Mahavira founded the Jain church. He had eleven ardent disciples called Ganadharas, ten of whom died in Mahavira’s life time. Only one, Arya Sud- haraman, survived and became the first Thera (pontiff) after the death of Mahavira.

The Jain religion flourished by leaps and bounds. Udayin, the successor of Ajathashatru of Magadha, was a devout Jain and so were the Nanda rulers.

Ujjain was a great Jain centre where saints like Kalkacharya and Gard’bhilla lived. In the third century B.C. was born Bhadrabahu, the greatest ever exponent of Jain philosophy, who composed Kalpasutra, the most authentic treatise on the rise and development of Jainism from its birth to his time.

The Mauryan ruler Chandragupta Maurya was a Jain and accepted this faith in the last years lof his life. He left Pataliputra and accompanied by Bhadrabahu reached Shravanabelagola in Kar- nataka where on the Chandra hill he performed a fast unto death and like a true Jain upasaka at­tained kaivalya exactly 170 years after the nirvana of Mahavira. According to the Jain canons Bhadrabahu spread Jainism in South India.

The fourteen Purvas (the textbooks of old Jain scriptures) which Mahavira himself had taught to his Ganadharas were perfected by Sambhutavi jaya and Bhadrabahu. Sambhutavijaya died in 322 B.C., the year Chandragupta Maurya ascended the throne and Bhadrabahu left Magadha for Mysore.

About 300 B.C., Sthulabhadra (the dis­ciple of Sambhutavijaya) called the first Jain coun­cil in which the Jain canons were compiled. Later in the first century A.D. ten commentaries of these Angas were prepared and named Niryuktis. When Bhadrabahu returned to Magadha, he refused to acknowledge the leadership of Stulabhadra. The Jain church was then divided into two parts – Digambara and Shvetambara the former fol­lowers of Bhadrabahu and remained nude, while the latter had adopted white garments.

The Jain Precepts and Philosophy

Because of their antiquity, Jain doctrines, which arose out of currents of thoughts of those days, have certain similarities with Samkhya and Bud­dhism. The metaphysical start in Jainism and Samkhya are almost the same.

Reality, according to Jainism, is uncreated and eternal and is characterised by origination, destruction and permanence. Every object of reality has infinite character both with respect to what it is and what is not and it has its modes and qualities. While modes and accidental characters of a substance appear and disappear the basic substance with its character is permanent. For example, the soul with its character of conscious­ness is something permanent while it has its ac­cidental characters of pleasure or pains and mode superimposed as body.

The substances are real, characterised by exist­ence and six in number. They are broadly divided into living (jiva) and non-living {ajiva).Jiva, which means soul or spirit, is classified into those which are in bondage and may possess only one sense organ or more, like earth, water, fire, wind and plant, and those that are free, which differ among themselves according to the number of sense or­gans they possess.

The non-living substances are made of matter, motion or rest, space and time. But time here has no extension in space. Consciousness is the very essence of the soul, potentially endowed with infinite vision, infinite knowledge, infinite power and infinite bliss.

The Jain Precepts and Philosophy

Because of their antiquity, Jain doctrines, which arose out of currents of thoughts of those days, have certain similarities with Samkhya and Bud­dhism. The metaphysical start in Jainism and Samkhya are almost the same.

Reality, according to Jainism, is uncreated and eternal and is characterised by origination, destruction and permanence. Every object of reality has infinite character both with respect to what it is and what is not and it has its modes and qualities.

While modes and accidental characters of a substance appear and disappear the basic substance with its character is permanent. For example, the soul with its character of conscious­ness is something permanent while it has its ac­cidental characters of pleasure or pains and mode superimposed as body.

The substances are real, characterised by exist­ence and six in number. They are broadly divided into living (jiva) and non-living (ajiva).Jiva, which means soul or spirit, is classified into those which are in bondage and may possess only one sense organ or more, like earth, water, fire, wind and plant, and those that are free, which differ among themselves according to the number of sense or­gans they possess.

The non-living substances are made of matter, motion or rest, space and time. But time here has no extension in space.

Consciousness is the very essence of the soul, potentially endowed with infinite vision, infinite knowledge, infinite power and infinite bliss. Butthis is bound by karma which suppresses the mun­dane soul. Every action, verbal, mental or other­wise, brings in the influx of karma of various types in the soul which determinates the circuit of birth as gods, men, devils, etc. Only by pure thoughts and acts the influx of karma can be stopped and the soul liberated. Everything depends upon karma and Jainism admits no creator.