________________
become supreme soul through its own strenuous efforts. In this state of supreme soul, the owner enjoys a state of bliss and eternity.
Some of the Jinas, known as Tirthankaras (or ford-makers) also show the path to others to attain Jina state and establish a creed. In the present time cycle, there are 24 Tirthankaras, with Adinath being the first and Mahavira being the 24th or latest Tirthankara. Even though Mahavira came from a prosperous family, he renounced his worldly life at the age of thirty and practiced extreme penance by giving up all worldly things, staying in desolate places, observing long and strenuous fasts and meditating on his soul to attain complete self realization (omniscience or enlightenment and bliss). His creed is propagated by a series of preceptors to date and practised by his followers called Jains. He propagated the ascetic lifestyle or nivratti attitude rather than just engagement in worldly life or prvratti attitude only. This attitude results in accepting the essentiality of practices like non-hurting anyone, self restraint or ascetic ideals (nivratti) even for worldly happiness.
We shall now discuss some distinguishing features of Jainism relevant to this study.
Quest for Truth (Sat) in Jainism Looking at the colorful and different forms of existences in the universe, it is natural to be inquisitive about the form and nature of the absolute truth or reality i.e. their ultimate source of origin, state and final destination. Jain philosophy surmises:
All beings or existents are real. Reality itself is multiple, with broad grouping as sentient and insentient beings or as Jiva (Living beings) and Ajiva beings (Non-living). Both are infinite in number.* Reality comprises permanence and change, multiplicity and identity similarity and universality / generality simultaneously. It therefore considers both permanence as well as change as real. This doctrine of reality is the basis of the doctrine of Anekantavada (multiplicity of viewpoints) which says that the reality should be viewed both from permanence viewpoint (substance, absolute) as well as momentary (mode, practical)
Pg.228 Gandhi & Jainism
