Basic teachings of Jainism

Jainism

 Everything starts with Namokar mantra, so,

Namo Arihantanam

Meaning: Salutation to Arihanta

Namo Siddhanam

Meaning: Salutation to Siddha

Namo Ayiriyanam

Meaning: Salutation to Acharya

Namo Uvajjhayanam

Meaning: Salutation to Upadhyaya

Namo Loye Savv Sahunam

Meaning: Salutation to the Saints of the whole world

Jainism is a religion of non violence.

It is believed in Jainism that not only human but each and every living organism, ranging from Giant blue whale to small micro-organisms that can’t be seen with naked eyes must not be harmed, since every living thing has a soul and in the course of re-incarnation, every soul has the capacity of enlightenment. Jains do not believe in a creator god but Tirthanker (Enlightened ones). There are 24 Tirthankeras in Jain religion namely:

1.           Adinath Ji

2.           Ajitnath Ji

3.           Sambhavnath Ji

4.           Abhinandannath Ji

5.           Sumatinath Ji

6.           Padmprabhu Ji

7.           Suparshvnath Ji

8.           Chandaprabhu Ji

9.           Pushpdantnath Ji

10.  Sheetalnath Ji

11.  Shreyansnath Ji

12.  Vasupoojya Ji

13.  Vimalnath Ji

14.  Anantnath Ji

15.  Dharmnath Ji

16.  Shantinath Ji

17.  Kunthunath Ji

18.  Arahnath Ji

19.  Mallinath Ji

20.  Munisuvratnath Ji

21.  Naminath Ji

22.  Neminath Ji

23.  Parshvnath Ji

24.  Mahaveer Ji

Jain literature is very vast, so I would only explain Jain teachings, which are more important to know.

The Karmic account of every soul decides what another living thing that soul will re-incarnate into. Many living things, like lion don’t have the choice to be non-violent, since it is their nature to kill, but we humans are the lucky ones since we have the choice to think before acting to any given situation. Though we have got this human life as a result of good Karma, still every human faces different situations in the lifetime, because of the difference in the karmic accounts. It is truth that there is violence in nature, but we can decide to be non violent. Jainism prohibits all kinds of violence in all forms, and there is no justification for harming any living thing, knowingly or unknowingly.

To understand this better, consider a dog barking at you at a street. You get scared and kick the dog. Now, Dog is a dog for its past accounts and it is a dogs nature to bark when someone new crosses his street. You got trapped in the situation because of some bad karma in your past life. Dog became the medium for you to pay for that bad karma.

Where you could have easily avoided the dog by slipping from side, you kicked him. Now the Dog got kicked for his bad karma, you acted violently and became the medium.

The most basic principles of Jainism are Ahimsa (Non-Violence), Aparigrah (Non- Attachment) and Anekantwaad (Different point of views are correct and incorrect at the same time). Anyone who understands these three principles can easily theorize the rest of the rules in Jainism, since everything is based on these three pillars only.

Ahimsa:

Ahimsa is of three types, ahimsa from thoughts, speech and Karma.

Ahimsa from thoughts:

 If you curse someone or you want something bad for someone, then these thoughts are violent thoughts, i.e. a form of violence. Understanding, that anything bad that has happened to us is the result of our own karma and the bad doer is definitely going to pay, helps us to think before we think curse words in our minds and saves us from the bad karma of violent thoughts.

If you think something bad, it is Violence

Ahimsa from Speech:

Hurting someone by saying bad words is also a form of violence and we should never do that.

If you scold or abuse someone, it is Violence

Ahimsa from karma:

We should never harm any living thing by our karma. Not only killing, but even hurting any human, animal or microorganism is prohibited in Jainism.

Aparigrah:

Aparigrah means Non-Attachment. There is a difference between love and attachment. Loving something or someone is a good thing, since you are not bound to anything you love. You don’t have any liability or ownership for something you love, rather you just let the things or the person, be the way they are. If the reason behind loving something or someone is because you own them, or at least you think that you own them, then it is attachment. Being attached isn’t a very bad thing since you do not hate or do anything bad or violent, rather you actually love, but still the love here, has a condition that you want to be rewarded with the same kind of love in return.

We humans are attached to our community, neighbors, family, friends, our home, car, etc. Aparigrah teaches that everything you have i.e. house, car, youthfulness, beauty, money, strength or anything you own is not permanent, and no matter how badly you want those to retain forever, you are going to lose these luxuries when the time comes. Anything you have is because of the good karma in past life and you neither own nor control the time when these things go away. So, there is nothing in life for which should be collected or we should do violence for, or be envy or proud of. We should not be attached to anything or anyone, but love them, since we do not control when those things or people will be long gone.

Anekantwaad:

Anekantwaad is the study of the complete nature of the object. Though we humans consider ourselves the most intelligent ones, still we have some limitations. We are not able to understand the complete nature of the ‘object’ because of limited perspective. We see or feel whatever we are comfortable with from our point of view. The object referred above, means any material thing, a view, a sound or a situation, anything. For example, consider a scholar who can read and write in the language of seven different countries. For the rest of the world where those seven languages are not used, that same scholar is an illiterate person. This is the difference between the perspective of the people of those seven countries and the rest of the world, and both are correct at the same time.

In our day today life, we can have a situation where, you are attached to everything around you, just like most people are. There is some situation where your neighbor doesn’t agree with you. From your point of view, you are absolutely right and it is very easy for you to think “I have been attached to that neighbor for so long, why doesn’t he understand the situation and act accordingly. Either he is a fool or doing so deliberately to hurt me. Okay, I will teach him a lesson, when I get a chance.” There is nothing wrong in having such thoughts, since your neighbor is also having the same kind of thoughts. If both the parties had the capability to understand the other point of view, or had accepted that, though they can’t understand, still there can be a different point of view, two good people would have not turned bad.

According to Jain philosophy, understanding the complete nature of the object (vastu ka swaroop) is called Kewal gyan. Knowledge about anything and everything is the main goal of life in Jain culture, but only a few i.e. enlightened ones are able to attain the state of kewal gyan.

It is very easy to follow Jainism, just practice all forms of non-violence, aparigrah and try to attain kewal gyan.

Just like other religions, Jains also have their temples and a very rich literature. Unlike other religions, our gods does not do anything. They do not grant wealth or power, but knowledge and wisdom. In Jain teachings, if someone attains something in life, then it is not the work of god, but the persons own karma. God only gives wisdom, man chooses weather to follow his wisdom or not. If he succeeds, then it is because of his own good karma, it is that simple.