jainism

Jainism

Jainism originated in ancient East India by the birth and ultimate liberation of twenty four conquerors or Jinas . People of the Jain faith believe that Jinas are human beings who become divine by subduing their sensual desires and overcoming karma , which is the accumulation of good and bad deeds . Good deeds allow living beings to be reincarnated into superior forms , while bad deeds force them to accept inferior forms after death ( Jainism

The Jains believe that the first Jina or conqueror was a giant living on earth 8 .4 million

years ago . The last Jina was Mahavira or The Great Hero , born in 550 BC . Mahavira is known as the founder of Jainism , seeing that he was able to attract a large number of followers to his faith ( Jain Dharma . Like Siddharta Buddha , Mahavira had belonged to the warrior caste and renounced the world ' at the age of thirty ( History of Jainism . Also like the Buddha , Mahavira had sought spiritual reality in the solitude of asceticism . Ultimately he had found enlightenment , although it had taken him thirteen long years to get there . He had converted eleven Brahmans to his faith soon after By the time of his death , he had founded a community of ascetics with fourteen thousand monks and thirty six thousand nuns . Mahavira is further known to have starved himself to death - a practice referred to as salekhana ( History of Jainism . According to the Jains , Mahavira is one of the fortunate ones , as he has conquered love and hate pleasure and pain , attachment and aversion , and has thereby freed `his soul from the karmas obscuring knowledge , perception , truth , and ability ( Jain Dharma

The first and foremost principle of living taught by Jainism is called Ahimsa or non-violence toward all living beings . Thus , the followers of Jainism have never encountered a problem of violence in their history . The only issue that the people of the Jain faith have had to confront is disunity . Two hundred years after the attainment of nirvana on the part of Mahavira , the Jain faith was divided into two sects : the Digambar and the Svetambar . Both sects hold different views or beliefs about a number of issues . For example , Digambar monks of the Jain faith do not wear anything because of their belief that clothes serve as reminders of the world . Svetambar monks , on the other hand are known to wear seamless clothes that are usually colored white Moreover , the Digambars are of the opinion that women are unable to attain liberation while they are living as women on earth . Svetambars on the contrary , believe that women may indeed achieve liberation seeing that one of the Jinas was a woman . Likewise , the Digambars and Svetambars have varied views about the prayers that are traditionally recited by the Jains ( Jainism

The Jains do not believe in a creator of the universe . According to them , the world is without beginning or end . Furthermore , there is no single god of the universe (Sivananda . The following is a...