Ahimsa the Ultimate Winner

Author(s): N P Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 29

principle of AHIMSA PARMO DHARMAHA even in the face of constantly changing socio-political and security environment. Jainism is the only religion or faith in the world, which has steadfastly maintained:
"Nothing is higher than Mount Meru or anything more expansive than the Sky Likewise know that no Dharma Is equal to Ahimsa in the world"
(Bhava Pahuda 91).
There is a remarkable coherence and continuity in the teachings of all the 24 Tirthankaras starting with Rishabhdev and ending with Mahavir.Each one of them in their respective life times ensured that Jain religion did not become static or ritualistic. Each one of them enriched the quality and content of Jain teachings through their spiritual experience and penetrating observation of the world around them.
In the words of Michael Tobias, a distinguished American Jain scholar:
"Jainism - India's and possibly the World's oldest religion - is a quiet, overwhelmingly serious way of life, a cultural insistence on compassion, a sociology of aesthetics that has dramatically changed the world and will continue to effect change.........Jainism is a momentous example to all of us that there can be and does exist a successful, ecologically responsible way of life which is abundantly non-violent in thought, action and deed."
Mahavir who lived from 599 BC - 527 BC brought a lot of clarity and lucidity in the interpretation of the basic Jain principles. put them in a wider universal perspective, and elucidated them persuasively and cogently. He put the Jain religion in the main stream of thought and faith in the following ways:
☆ It is mentioned in the Jain scriptures that after renunciation from worldly life, the austerities, penance and meditation practiced by Mahavir were even more rigorous
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