Jainism the Oldest Living Religion

SR No.: 001195
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jyoti Prasad Jain, Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: P V Research Institute Varanasi
Publication Year: 1988
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, History, Religion, E000, & E999
File Size: 3 MB

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Jainism very often misunderstanding and misinterpreting them. In certain places, devotion to Jina or to particular Tirthankaras, even to Jaina ascetics, is ranked much higher than all the religious observances enjoined by the Śrutis add Smrtis.2 And if there are to be found stories to the effect that Jainism was propagated by some or other follower of the Vedas who had dissented from his parent creed, there are similar stories, equally old, in the Jaina tradition that it was Marichi, the grandson of Lord Rsabha, who shrinking from the austere creed of the Jina, preached a false doctrine from which later on developed the 363 Pāşandas like the Vedic and such other faiths which were in contravention of the nonviolent creed of the Jina. In fact, according to the Jaina tradition, it was in merely some outward forms or customs which are supposed by these antagonists to be essentials of Jainism... From these old and well-known philosophical works down to insignificant tales and dramas, passages might be collected which purport to ridicule Jainism. The language is grave, caustic, filthy or even obscene according to the attitude and taste of the writer. The criticism of Jainism is generally wrong and misguided”. (Also see J. G. Jan. 1918, p. 45).
* In several Vedic hymns, some of the Purāņas, Yoga Vāśistha, Bhartphari's Satakas etc.
1 The Jaina doctrine mostly critcised by the Brāhmanic philosophers is the Syādvāda. Eminent scholars like Bādarayana (Vedānta-sūtra) and Sankarācārya tried their best to criticise it. But as Dr. G. N. Jha once observed, even Sankara could not and did not understand it properly. Swami Dayānanda's 'Satyārtha Prakāśa' (Ch. 12), Hopkin's Religions of India', are some recent example of such wrong and misguided criticisms of Jainism.
2 Visņu Purāņa (3, 341, p. 457) Skanda Purāņa (p: 102103), Śiva Purāņa, Nāga Purāņa. Manu's code, Bhāgavata Purāņa (7-11, v. 8–9) etc. See also Hindu Šāstras Pt. VIII, (p. 213-222) and Moksa Mārga Prakāśaka by Todar Mall p. 207-211.