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Jainism and World Peace
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himself and his greed as well as wrath and pride. "Thou are Thine own Master" is a Jaina doctrine of supreme potentiality and consolation.
Auspicious religion of Lord Mahāvira
In response to the query-what is the auspicious religion of mankind? Lord Mahāvira proclaimed that "non-violence, self-restraint and penance are the three tenets of most auspicious religion. Lord Mahāvīra further said that religion is not mysterious. He also said that nobody should accept Jainism the religion of mankind without examining it. Do not accept anything by force or by blind belief.
Jaina religion is an ethical religion par excellence. It has developed an unique system of metaphysical thinking based upon its own unique epistemology which recognises both empirical and transcendental experience to be within the scope of human knowledge.
Jaina Culture
Indian culture is remarkable for its peculiarities. It consists of two main trends- Brahmanic and Shramanic. The Vedic, Aryans or Hindu tradition come under the Brahmanic trend. The Shramanic trend covers the Jaina, Buddhist and similar other ascetic traditions. The Jaina culture which represents the Shramanic culture is in negative non-Vedic, non-Aryan and non Brahmanic. It is equally incorrect to maintain that Jainism is nothing more than a revolt against the Vedic religion.
Antiquity of Jainism
Jainism is one of the oldest religions of the world. It is wrong to say that Jainism was founded by Lord Mahavira. In fact, there are twenty four omniscient teachers or Tīrtharikaras in the current descending cycle of time. The first Tīrtharikara was Lord Rşabhadeva, who was born several tens of thousand of years ago. References to him are even found in Vedas, Visņupurāņa and Bhāgavat Purāņa. Lord Mahāvīra, the twenty fourth of the Tīrtharkaras was born in 599 B.C. Lord Mahāvira called himself the expounder of the tenets held by a succession of twenty three earlier Thirtharkaras. He was not so much the founder of new faith as the reformer of the previously existing creed of the twenty third Tirthankara Lord Pārsvanātha, who lived in the eighth century B.C. Jaina and nonJaina scholars have adduced authentic evidence to prove that Jainism is
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| SR No. | 014010 |
| Book Title | Jainism in a Global Perspective - Collection of Jain papers of 1993 Parliament of World Religions, Chicago |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Sagarmal Jain, Shreeprakash Pandey |
| Publisher | Parshwanath Vidyapith |
| Publication Year | 1998 |
| Total Pages | 402 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Seminar & Articles |
| File Size | 23 MB |