Heart of Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson

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INTRODUCTION
a divine creative spirit. In the philosophy of the Jainas no place is reserved for God. Indeed it seems probable that the first Jainas did not acknowledge gods at all. They early taught that one should not say God rains', but just the cloud rains'. Thus one of their fundamental principles would seem to have been that there is no power higher than man. This principle, however, it is instructive to note, soon proved unworkable, and it has long since been practically abandoned. The Jainas do worship, yet are the objects of their worship neither God nor gods. Denying God, they worship man, to wit, the Venerable (Arhat), the Conqueror (Fina), the Founder of the (four) Orders (Tirthankara). Now this revolt from God-worship, and the acceptance in its stead of man-worship, this startling anticipation of Positivism, may well claim one's attention, if only as affording some idea of the possibilities of intellectual frailty.
Within the last thirty years a small band of scholars, pre-eminent amongst whom are the late Hofrath Professor Bühler, Professor Jacobi, and Dr. Hoernle, have effected a great advance in our knowledge of Jainism. For long it had been thought that Jainism was but a sub-sect of Buddhism, but, largely as a consequence of the researches of the Orientalists just mentioned, that opinion has been finally relinquished, and Jainism is now admitted to be one of the most ancient monastic organizations of India. So far from being merely a modern variation of Buddhism, Jainism is the older of the two heresies, and it is almost certain that Mahāvira, though a contemporary of Buddha, predeceased him by some fifty years.1 A flood of light has been shed on the origin of Jainism, on its relations both to Brahmanism and to Buddhism, on the sects of the Jainas, 1 As now generally accepted, the dates are
for Mahāvīra, 599-527 B.C.
and for Buddha, 557-477 B.C. If these dates be correct, then Mahāvīra and Buddha were for thirty years contemporaries.