Amongst about 5000 religious faiths existing around the world there are only a handful that are well known and practised around the globe. Almost 80 per cent of world’s population belong to the five major religions(Christianity,Islam,Hindism,Buddhism,Judaism) or are Aethists. There are a few others that are followed by sizeable number of people and their followers live scattered in many countries of the world. But most of the religions are scantily followed and are localised in a certain part of a country. Unfortunately they are diminishing in numbers thus reducing the beauty of diversity.
Jainism is one such religious faith that falls in the middle of the three categories. It’s followers make little less than one percent of the world’s population. They mostly are inhabitants of India,although they are well known minorities in many countries of the world where we have many Indians living. Jains are very well known as one of the oldest religious faiths of the world that believes in non violence or ahimsa. They don’t believe in a Creator God unlike most of the established faiths. They believe in the eternal circle of life,death and rebirth.One’s future is determined by his Karma during a life cycle.
According to Jainism the spiritual soul has to go through the endless cycle of rebirths until it attains a all knowing state of Moksha,which is a state of Bliss. This,in other terms in enlightenment which can be achieved through doing good to all living beings and nature. So,the Jains practice non violence and try to do no harm to any living being including plants and also nature. As such,their diet is strictly vegetarian and excludes even roots of plants as in most cases roots keep the plant cycle going.From the roots the next generation of plants grow. The faith of Jainism has the foundation of three pillars.They are the three jewels: right belief,right knowledge and right conduct. They don’t have any supreme creator God. Instead,they have their supreme preachers or educators. They have their 24 Tirthankaras, all of whom attained enlightenment in their times. Incidentally,the historians could trace back to last two of the 24 Tirthankaras. They are,Parshvanatha and Mahavira. We may consider the previous 22 Tirthankaras being from pre historic times. The Jains revere all 24 Tirthankaras as their religious Gurus but four of them have special mention. They are Rishavanatha,the first of the Tirthankaras,Neminatha,Parshvanatha and Mahavira.Historians estimate that Parshvanatha may have lived during 7th century BCE. Lord Mahavira’s birth and activities are however recorded in details in history. He was born in a khsatriya royal family near present day Muzaffarpur of Bihar. The exact location of his birth is Kundalpur(Kundalgram according to a sect of Jains).
He is recorded as born in a democratic country named Vajji, a ganarajya,in the house of it’s King Siddhartha in the year 599BCE.His mother was queen Trishala. He was born with special ominous signs of prosperity in the ganarajya. This brought him the name of Vardhaman,meaning growing. During Mahavira Vardhaman’s presence in the palace the country saw unprecedented growth and prosperity. It is a popular Jain belief that after his birth God Indra performed his Avisheka on the Sumeru mountain. His birth was on Chaitra Triyodashi which is observed as Mahavira jayanti all over the world. This year the day falls on 4th April. It’s the biggest Jain festival and in India,it is a national holiday. On this day the Jain temples all over take a festive look. At places they arrange Rath yatra and avisheka(anointment). In the temples they chant religious hymns,and arrange deliberations by monks and nuns on salient features of Jainism,the main focus being on Ahimsa. They collect donations for performing charitable tasks. They also engage in vratas,pujas and prayers. Lighting the temples and houses is also done but they refrain from firecrackers as those may harm some creatures(living beings). Vardhaman Mahavira is regarded as the main preacher of Jainism in the present era. That is the reason how Mahavira jayanti has become the greatest festival of the Jains.
Coming back to Mahavira’s life,we see that he left his palace at the age of 30 for the search of Moksha. He was in penance for twelve and a half years for achieving enlightenment. His intense meditation brought him success in searching his inner soul and he became a Tirthankara whence he started preaching his ideas derived from his enlightenment and that of his predecessors. His teachings touched the life of many and in great numbers they embraced the new belief. He left his physical body at Pawapuri(near Nalanda in Bihar)in 527 BCE and his soul got liberated from the cycle of reincarnation. It was on the Diwali day and this day is regarded as the last day of the year according to Jain calendar.
May Ahimsa win over all violences and wars in the world.
