The Metaphysical and religious aspects of jainism

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The Metaphysical and religious aspects of Jainism

Jainism arose as a reaction against Hinduism . firstly a heterodox Hindu sect , it developed as a mode of perfecting a basic Hindu ideal . Buddhism and Jainism both sprang up in the conventional period of ancient India (500-300 B .C ) as a resolution to the central problems of Indian life All religious Hindu was intensely concerned with the problem of boundless rebirth . The concept of samsara rested on the belief in the transmigration of souls . The soul of

a man at death is supposed to pass into another existence , except in the case of one who at death became strangely holy and merged with Brahma . Depending upon one 's merits succeeding rebirths could be on a higher or a lower plane . A man of low caste could be reborn into a dignified family or vice versa . The law of karma decides man 's fate everything a man does his thoughts , deeds and actions , are thought to have significant consequences "Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting " could be accurate of any man "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he as well reap " meant to the Hindu that if a man were born a Shudra (non-Aryan servant , it was as he had sinned in his previous existence

A passage in the Chandogya Upanishad states "Those who are of pleasant conduct here , the view is , certainly , that they will enter a pleasant womb , either the womb of a Brahmin , or the womb of a Kshytriya , or the womb of a Vaisya . But those who are of a reeking conduct here , the prospect are , indeed , that they will enter either the womb of a swine or the womb of an outcast " R . E . Hume , 1934 ,

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Jainism , was also against the Brahmanical doctrine of salvation limited to persons born into the Brahman caste , located the primary emphasis on behavior , on how one act . One must behave in such a way as to evade contamination by matter , considered as defiling as pitch and critical of all spirituality of being

In the Occident it is normally believed that Vardhamana Mahavira , a contemporary of Gautama Buddha , was the founder of Jainism . usually however , the Jains regarded Mahavira not as the first but the last of the Tirthankaras , the Jain prophets . Undoubtedly , numerous of the Tirthankaras were mythological . Still , according to the Jainologist Heinrich Zimmer , there is sufficient ground to believe the authenticity of Parsvanatha "the Lord Parsva " who is alleged to have achieved liberation 246 years before Mahavira

The Jains have such reflective respect for Parsva that we read in one passage "At the mere reveal of the name of the Lord Parsva disturbances cease , the sight [darsana] of him destroys the fear of rebirths , and his worship removes the responsibility of sin " R . E . Hume , 1934 ,

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The Tirthankaras or the Makers of the River-Crossing are not to be worshipped , although they might be contemplated . They are believed...