Introducing Jainism

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

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INTRODUCING JAINISM
Being or Reality) is maintained as permanent, without beginning, change or end. The Jains oppose this view, and declare that Being or Sat, is not persistent, unchangeable. or endless. Reality is permanent and changeable, there is a growth, development and destruction in it. The Reality has two aspects, and this is what is known as anekāntavāda in their philosophy.
Lastly, about the origin of the idea of Ahimsā. The cult of Ahimsā is very old in India. It is found in Vedic religion as well as in the Buddhist. But in these two religious beliefs, the doctrine of Ahimsā is not fully and rigorously stressed. But in Jainism it is very rigorously stressed and that is why this doctrine of Ahimsā is mainly associated with Jainism.
PART I. HISTORY OF JAINISM
V. Origin of Jainism
After the Vedic period comes the Age of Imperial Unity (7th/6th cent. B.C.- 320 A.D.) which is, in a sense, an age of revolt in Human Civilization. In fact, the sixth century B.C. is extraordinarily important in the intellectual history of mankind. In this century, some great men of the world like Mahāvīra, Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Laotzu, Pythagoras were born and were preaching their new philosophies. It was in this period that Lord Vardhamāna Mahāvira was born in 599 B.C.; it was at that time Magadha, an area in Eastern India, was both politically and spiritually at the height of its power; it was in this time Mahāvīra started preaching and teaching his doctrines for 30 years; it was an era which experienced some new thoughts and trenchant ideas which ultimately gave birth to a new religion known as Jainadharma. Though Mahāvīra gave it a new shape, the antiquity of Jaina religion is older than Mahāvira and Buddhism.
i) The Antiquity of Jainadharma
According to the belief of the Jains themselves, the Jainadharma is eternal, and it has been revealed again and again, in every one of the endless succeeding periods of the