Jainism: A Way To Cleanse

By Dipankar Khanna

Jainism is an ancient religion, more ancient than what most of us are given to believe. Although a lot of people associate Jainism with Lord Mahavira as its founder but nothing can be further from truth. Lord Mahavira was not the founder of Jainism but the last of the 24 Tirthankaras . It is very difficult to envisage and visualise how old and ancient this religion is because the period between the coming to earth of each of the Tirthankaras was yugas or eons. The first Tirthankara of the Jains was Lord Rishabnatha also referred by some as Vrishabhanatha .

Lord Mahavira who is also addressed as Vardhamana Mahavira was a contemporary of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha. But he was elder to the Buddha. It is believed that they preached in and around the same area of Magadha in India around 500 BC. Surprisingly they never met one another unlike Lao Tse and Confucius who were also contemporaries in China around the same time but recorded history confirms that they did have a historic meeting. However, disciples of both the Buddha and Mahavira, it is believed, interacted with each other sharing and exchanging notes.

Like Buddhism and Yoga-Sankhya philosophy propagated by Maharishi Patanjali, Jainism is a non-theistic system of philosophical thought and religious belief. It does not subscribe to the view of a supreme Godhead underlying all reality but Jainism accepts the existence of a soul or atman . According to Jainism, there are countless individual atmans who need to get purified, rarified and ultimately identify themselves with the universal soul or the Supreme Paramatman.

Cleansing of the individual atman is required since the atman is burdened with the defilement of both positive and negative karma of body, speech and mind. The fruition in following the prescribed spiritual path in Jainism leads to a mere mortal donning the mantle of a Jina and residing in the palace of supernatural accomplishments. This metaphysical sphere is known as the Siddhasila region or sphere.

The goal of a Jain devotee or practitioner is obvious. The individual soul or jivataman needs to identify and repose in the paramatman through the attainment of the state of Jinahood. For this the help of Arhats, Siddhas, Acharyas and Upadhyayas are marshalled. Therefore, the principle of the Jainism, without the elaborations of mentioning particular individuals gurus or Tirthankaras, is to beckon the host of faceless holy atmans , who have graduated through the holy stages from upadhyaya to arhatship , is:

Namo Arhantanam,

Namo Siddhanam,

Namo Ayariyanam,

Namo Uvajjhayanam,

Namo loye savva sahunam.

In Jainism one does not pray from fear or for favour. The only legitimate reason for worship in Jainism is to gain the qualities of the virtues of the Jinas and imbibe their goodness, so there is no room for materialism and pursuit of prayer for sense gratification. Material gratification adds on to the tally of our karma . To attain to the state of a Jina is to annihilate karma, hence it is futile and unnecessary to pray for material gains.

This unique approach is strikingly refreshing in Jainism in contrast to the other religions where we see most people praying, begging, cajoling and demanding fervently from their deities to gain material benefits or protection from misfortunes. Such a prayer according to Jains, is selfish praying and worship, and cannot be considered spiritually legitimate or efficacious for the soul's upward journey into the vast nothingness.