Jain Journal 1977 07

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

Page 10

JAIN JOURNAL
Solidly the religion stands on its spiritual foundation, A total way of life of universal application And a workaday success By the witness of its lineage that is bloodless. Indeed the Jaina Great Prayer pays kind remembrances To all saints of the universe of all allegiances. A home religion of India --Spiritual cradle of Asia, Jainism began in prehistory, It survives into today, a deep-rooted minority Holding to the faith often at mighty expense, And the watchword of the faith is non-violence.
Twenty-four teachers in spiritual succession Revived the eternal Jaina religion --Eternal, for truth constantly exists, Jainism is truth, thus Jainism persists, Equally as truth has no founder, nor has Jainism, The first Lord Rsabha only initiated a Jaina revivalism. The last teaching Lord, by name Mahavira In time and place moved nearby to the Buddha. Truly the Lords are passed into ancient yesterdays. Yet the Jaina Holy Writ recounts each one in praise.
Here begins the palm leaf tradition Of the twenty-second Lord of the Jaina religion, A Yadava, by name Aristanemi In Mahabharata times, circa 1500 B.C. He renounced a lotus bride and a birthright inheritance For his house was of imperial significance. And to what estate fell this prince in oblivion ? O, behold the joys and sweet tears of the Jaina tradition.
In a bygone age, on sacred Parsvanatha Hill The twenty-first Jaina Lord sat immobile At the end of His karmic exodus, Mithilapuri birth to symbolic blue lotus. For voluntary death sat the timeworn Lord Nami And to comfort His retinue, He gave prophecy: "He comes ... for all living beings to benefit By the Jaina way to the Infinite. He comes ... color dark, Celibate from birth, conch footmark.