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Both
his parents were followers of the
religious teachings of Parsva, the
'fourfold teaching', chaturyama dharma
, abstinence from violence,
theft, untruth and acquisitiveness. We
should nowadays call them Jains.
Parsva, who had lived some 250 years
before Mahavira, is recognize as the
twenty-third
or prophet of Jainism. It was
shortly after his parents' death that
Vardhamana, or Mahavira, decided at
the age of thirty to renounce a
worldly life. He gave up all his
possessions, even his clothes, and
lived for the next twelve years a life
of great hardship, training himself to
endure the pains and discomforts of
the body until he became indifferent
to them. The wandering ascetic,
seeking knowledge alone in the wilder
places, or in company with fellow
seekers for truth, was (and still is)
an accepted figure on the edge of
Indian society. The sixth century B.C.
was an era of intellectual ferment, an
exciting period for a young man of
enquiring spirit, when various groups
were searching beyond the bounds of
the rather rigid religious orthodoxy
of the time. The best-known
individual, at least in historical
perspective, was the Buddha, a near
contemporary of Mahavira. Some of the
earlier Western scholars who
encountered Jainism did not
distinguish it from Buddhism (for
there are some similarities, as well
as very marked differences) and even
confused the persons of Mahavira and
the Buddha.
Mahavira persevered with this
austere lifestyle, marked by long
spells of fasting and other penances,
and by deep meditation.
At last, during one period of
meditation by the side of a river, he
came to a comprehension of the whole
nature and meaning of the universe.
This total knowledge, omni science,
kevala jnana; is very important to
Jainism. Most of us have had the
experience, at some time, of puzzling
over something we do not quite
understand, when, suddenly, almost as
though a cloud clears, we get a flash
of understanding and we see the
solution to our problem. Can we
imagine this flash of understanding
spreading out, clearing the clouds
over not just our small problem but
all the problems of the universe,
giving us an understanding of the
whole nature and workings and meaning
of the universe? This is what happened
to Mahavira. And it can happen, and
has happened, to other people as well.
This total knowledge does not come
easily: for Mahavira, as we have seen,
it was the result of years of
austerity and meditation.
This was the
fourth of the five great events
of Mahavira's life which are
celebrated by Jains today: his
conception, birth, renunciation, and
now enlightenment. The fifth great
event, nirvana or moksa
came thirty years later.
During
these thirty years Mahavira,
strengthened by his knowledge, spread
his message among the people. He spoke
in the language of the region, Ardha
Magadhi
, not in the classical Sanskrit
of the scholars, and the oldest Jain
scriptures are preserved in that
language. Some people, men and women,
were inspired to give up all
possessions and become monks and nuns.
Others were unable to go that far but
followed Mahavira's teachings without
giving up their homes and families and
work.
Mahavira
taught a scientific explanation of the
nature and meaning of life and a guide
as to how we should behave to draw
this real nature and meaning into our
own life. We must start with three
things. First, we must have RIGHT
FAITH , we must believe in truth.
Second, we must have the RIGHT
KNOWLEDGE, we must study to understand
what life is all about. Third, we must
follow RIGHT CONDUCT, the conduct
which our faith and knowledge show us
to be correct. These are the 'three
jewels', ratna-
traya. of. Jainism.
RIGHT
FAITH is perhaps the hardest of all.
Nobody can tell us what we can
believe, but we can look at the
message of Mahavira and believe that
he really did know what he was talking
about and that his message makes
sense.
Mahavira's
message contains the basis of RIGHT
KNOWLEDGE. Life is a puzzle. Where did
we come from before birth? Where do we
go after death? Nobody's life is
completely and totally happy, but why
do some people have lives of great
misery and others have much joy?
Mahavira teaches us that this is not
the result of the whims of some
distant god. No, each one of us is
what we have made ourselves by our
actions in this life and in previous
lives. Every individual (and not only
humans, but animals and plants) is
basically a pure spirit or soul (jivajiva
is the Jain word for it) which is
capable of complete knowledge and
complete freedom.
But by our actions and thoughts
we have, as it were, covered this pure
spirit with the gross material of
karma which obscures our knowledge and
limits our freedom and ties us down to
one life after another. Although we
may have a lot of happiness in life we
also, all of us, have a great deal of
unhappiness. We want to know the way
in which we can get rid of the
restrictions of karma and gain the
state of complete knowledge and
glorious freedom which is known as moksa
or nirvana.
Although this may be a very long, very
slow process for most of us, over
countless lives, Mahavira teaches us
how to make a start in freeing
ourselves from the restrictions and
miseries of karma.
So
we come to RIGHT CONDUCT. Strength of
passions is the worst thing, passions
of violence and desire and possession.
The most important principle which
runs through the whole of Mahavira's
attitude of life is
ahimsa.
This is usually translated as
'non-violence', but it goes beyond
that and really means the greatest
possible kindness to all living
things. This is the first and
fundamental rule which we should try
to follow, to get rid of violence in
all our actions and even in our
thoughts. Yes, in our thoughts as
well, for violent thoughts can be
potentially as harmful as violent
deeds. Mahavira's
teachings, if faithfully followed,
have two results.
Firstly, they produce a better
society for every creature to live in,
and secondly, they enable the
individual to improve his or her own
inner feelings and character. So,
following on from ahimsa,
we are taught to be truthful and
honest, to create both individuals and
a society in which lies and theft, and
general insecurity, are absent. Lies
and theft are the result of our
passions and possessiveness. True
peace and harmony in society and in
the individual are possible only if we
can restrain our passions and desires.
So Mahavira tells us to reduce our
longing for the things of the world,
for material possessions and for
sexual activities. We can never have
real peace of spirit so long as we are
constantly seeking more and more
possessions and pleasures.
These
then are the five rules of conduct
which Mahavira taught, non-violence,
truthfulness, no stealing, non-
acquisition and control of sexual
desires. It is a hard program and not
everybody can follow it all at once.
So Mahavira set up a society in which
some people, monks and nuns, try to
follow his program as far as is
humanly possible. Others, ordinary lay
people, men and women, do not give up
their homes and jobs and families, but
they try as far as possible in the
circumstances of daily life to follow
the five rules of conduct. While the
monk or nun can take precautions to
avoid harm even to the tiniest
living creature, the rule of
non-violence must mean something less
for ordinary people caught up in the
ordinary business of our lives. A monk
or nun can give up all possessions and
seek no more: for most of us
non-acquisition must mean trying to
reduce our craving for possessions and
the pleasures of the world.
Monks and nuns can go very much
further than married men and women in
subduing their attachment to sex.
Mahavira
taught his message for thirty years
until his life on earth ended and he
passed on to that state of complete
freedom and bliss and peace which we
call moksha. For most of us
moksha is a very long
way away. But he taught us how
we can approach it ourselves by rules
which lead to inner peace and harmony
inside ourselves and outward peace and
harmony in human society. He taught
more than that, a democratic
organization in the society which he
set up, with all men and women playing
their part and with no barriers of
class or caste. He also taught
tolerance and an appreciation that
things can be seen from more points of
view than one. Above all he taught
that we ourselves produce our own fate
by our own actions and emotions: we
should not look outside for some god
to praise or blame or ask for favors.
When we honor Mahavira we do not ask
him for present help, but we meditate
on his example and teachings and seek
to draw the real meaning of these into
our own life and spirit.
This
is the essence of Mahavira's
teachings. Jainism is one of the
world's oldest religions: the modern
Jain may well see it as scientific,
practical and fitted for the modern
world.
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