Jain Dharma & the path of many sidedness
A guest article by Aidan Rankin, who has recently authored the excellent book ‘The Jain Path: Ancient Wisdom for the West’. Amongst other subjects covered in this article, Aidan deals briefly with whether Jains can be considered as Hindus or not.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Jai mahavira swami
jai govinda
What a very true article ….We are all seeking a pathway to a better self…we are ruled by materialistic tendencies and all want money, nice clothes and good food. To abstain is difficult and we don’t see reason behind why we should fast or pay pieties.
jainism believes in ahimsa and bel;ieves god resides in the self ..only if you let the God come out in the various forms. By eating flesh, talking bad and being selfish we do not attain god within.
Jainism like Hinduism are both centred around discipline and true devotion to the right pathway. through the love of the pure God may we love others and treat others with respect and obedience.
Jainsim is very pure in the fact it is Hinduism in its orthodox form …jainsim uses the practises of self discipline to attain the ultimate salavation of god. As Hindu’s we must also pay homage to Mahavira and tirathakaris’ as they teach us a path to subline fulfillment and happiness…….we still often turn to gurus who are sometimes bogus and not true in their hearts.
Jai mahavira swami dev ji
Ravi Kumar Sharma
February 27th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Jainism is a philosophy and any one practicing that is a true Jain. Most important pilllors of this phislosopy are love for life and that includes all living creatures and plants, nonviolence and that means not hurting any life physically, mentalyy and socially, Anekantvad and tolerance for all. jainism does not start with Lord Mahavira as he was the last Jain Thirthankar and before that there have been 23 other Tirthankar so it is far older aphilosophy thatn many others. Jainism can not be considered as part of Hinduisim but a Hindu can be Jain if he so practices jainism and this will be true for any one from any religion. jainism is a supreme religion if practiced as it can bring no harm to any life and creates respect and love for all lives.
February 28th, 2007 at 3:47 am
This whole thing about ahimsa is a nonsense. When we take basketful of rice(padi) or wheat and by manipulating it and turning it into edible food we have done ahimsa to the living organism inside the grain of rice or the grain of wheat. The life in the grain has been destroyed to feed ourselves. We have destroyed a life. That is HIMSA..VIOLENCE…ahimsa is not restricted to animals or human beings.
All this nonsensical teaching about ahimsa is preaching nonsense…just done to mislead the people.
February 28th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Keshari that is why some Jain monks cover their face with white cloth so that they don’t kill any small insects when they breathe in, it’s impossible to live without killing anything but they think while we live we should atleast try to minimise himsa.
February 28th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
i think you don’t understand Ahimsa - it is respect for the life in any form, we must honour the people and animals we live with ….ahimsa is not about be careful or eating the right foods , It is about the souls and how to devote yourself to a discipline ….by fasting and respecting other entiities we become a higher being ….we will not acheive anything through being untruthful or unkind.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Namaste
It is truly a great piece of writing, full of wisdom, knowledge and philosophy of non violence of mind and body.
But if we take any idea, philosophy to the extreme, it inevitably leads to extremism. Even the extremeism of non violence is not good for health, one’s well being.
We all know where fanaticism, extremism ultimately lead us, definately not to a safer, happier, prosperous and multicultural world.
We not only have to weigh the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages of every philosophy, every action and counter action, no matter how noble it may sound, but we have to consider how the concept will fit in this fast changing, materalistic and dangerous world we live in today.
What may be relavant, meaningful, pertinent some 2500 years ago may not be ideal, instep today.
Even Gandhiji, while preaching Ahimsa, Satyagrah, civil disobedience said again and again that his meathod, his weapon to
fight the British, to liberate his beloved motherland from the clutches of British Raj would not have worked if the colonial powers were Germany or Japan.
He would have been killed, hanged long before any one would have heard about him.
Hitler’s Third Reich, the Nazi dictatorship gassed some 20 million people, that include six million Jews without a trace of conscious. How could Ahimsa work against such brutality, such philosophy?
So often followers of Jainism and even Hinduism believe, falsly in my opinion that Ahimsa is the answer to all our problems. Could Jainism, even Hinduism and Sikhism survive, exist in countries like Saidi Arabia, Afghanistan or even Pakistan?
The answer, the antidote to Ahimsa, the false hope was so vividly and intellectually provided in the article Lord Krishna’s War Ethics, in Hindu Voice last momth.
Could Pandava have achieved any thing, any concession from Kaurave by Ahimsa? Krishna did not thought so.
Seeds of life exist in all form of life, that include all food we eat. We readily eat tubers which can only be extracted by uprooting, killing the plant.
Of course this is not the same as killing animals for food. But only if we not take Ahimsa to the extreme.
I would also like to thank all the preceding writers, contributors for their civil and intelligent input and above all to Hindu Voice for providing a platform for such an open and intellectual discussion.
Bhupendra
March 1st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Hello Human beings. Discussions and debates on religions are never ending. Every one has, his or her own belief and believes is supreme to others. All faiths are man made and phiosophies have been penned down by thinkers in different regions of the world. Even the most violent of faiths and their believers are to say that their belief system is supreme and GOD’s word. Here i would just like to add that be it Jainism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Budhism, or any other faith that evolved in the Bharat Varsha have derived from the same philosophy. All other faiths are an import and do not have the same philosophical thoughts and thus conflict with the Bharat Varsha evolved faiths. ( I stress Bharat Varsha faiths here coz some do not agree to be connected to Hinduism). Jainism can claim to be the most peaceful and non violent religions, but the adherents of this faith are forgetting that with out the armies of the warrior castes, would they have survived to this day? For an argument they would differ, but the boundries of Bharat Varsha went far beyond today’s and if it were not for the warrior castes they would’ve been slaughtered to extinction, No one has to agree with me , but that is a fact .
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:40 am
“In this sense, Jainism reflects Hinduism in its true form and conversely, true Hinduism is Jain”
above is a quote from the original article
I disagree with it. I personally fail to see how Jain”ism” influenced Sanatan Dharma. Instead Jainism seems to concentrate on certain phiosophies/paths within the Sanatan Dharma.
In an era, where money clearly seems to do all the talking, it will be interesting to see if Jains as a body accept the financial incentives which the devious UPA government have placed on the table for them.
From my expereinces in the UK, in London, I have always noticed how keen the majority of Jains are to distance themselves from Hindus (see Anish’s article). The elder generation of Jains less so.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
“From my expereinces in the UK, in London, I have always noticed how keen the majority of Jains are to distance themselves from Hindus”
^^^^ I’m not to sure about that.
At my university’s Hindu soc theres been a Jain member who’s been very influential over the past few years without compromising his Jain identity, I think he’s an active member of Young Jains UK (or a similiar sounding organisation). My friend from Birmingham used to go Hindu Shakha sessions which were mainly run and attended by Jains.
Personally having been to the Jain temple in Leicester (which by the way is very impressive if any of you have had the privilege to go) i didn’t feel anything there antagonistic towards Hinduism.
The chronology is the same as in Hinduism. The first 3 of the 24 of the Jain Tirthankaras find mention in the Vedas, a much later Tirthankara was Krishna’s cousin and the last one Mahavira was said to be lifted into Heaven by Indra (the central Vedic deva…king of the devas). So theres certainly some connection. But at the end of the day its up to the Jains to decide.