Jain Journal 2004 01

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

Page 37

162
JAIN JOURNAL : VOL-XXXVIII, NO. 3 JAN. 2004
which any action would have taken place. It is said that Rşabhadeva taught us many things, but unfortunately all of them were found in books written in some 1000-1500 years later. We do in fact find the life sketch of Rsabha in the Kalpasūtra, one of the Agama texts of the Svetāmbara Jains. So also the life of Pārsvanātha, the 23rd Tīrthankara, is depicted in the Kalpasūtra. The date of Pārsvanātha is considered as 817 B.C. There is reference to Aristanemi in the same text that dates his life to 1000 B.C. In the Lankāvatāra-sútra, Aristanemi, among others, is also mentioned. So if we take 1500 B.C. as the starting point of the 1s Tirthankara and the culmination of the 24th Tirthankara to 600 B.C., it would be easy to say that that was the period when Jainism started to develop.
TUP.
Man has been trying his best to understand religion for over 3500 years. The English word religion is equated with the Indian term dharma. But the two terms have some differences in meaning and outlook. In fact, the basic meaning of religion (< Latin religion, substantive of religio, French religion, Middle English religioun) is piety, care, the performance of duties to God and man”. The word religion is not to be derived from Latin religāre, to bind, as it is normally done in common parlance, and states that religion means that which binds you or holds you. The word is connected with Greek alego I care (< inf. alegein "to have a care for, to heed" cf. Greek algos, care, from the same root leg-). Homer has used the word in this sense in his Iliad (xvi. 388)—theon opin ouk alegontes "not regarding the vengeance of the gods”, where the word indicates “fearing the gods”. Gradually this meaning was shifted and relegated to the idea of what exists beyond the visible world of which human beings have no control. At a later time, this idea was nurtured through faith, belief, ritual, prayer, spiritual exercises and so on for guiding the everyday conduct of human beings. The religious activities are not guided by reason as is done in philosophy. In course of time, people are strictly adhered to the validity of religious beliefs and practices. The Indian term dharma (derived from the root dhr, to hold, with the suffix ma) means the norms for living in a society. The original sense is 'dhāranād dharma ityāhuh, dharmo dhārayate prajāh i.e. that which holds the prajās or people together are actually the social order. In the Indian context more emphasis is given on the social order of a place. It is for that reason that we find in the Manusamhitā that the ten inner qualities of man constitute the characteristics of dharma. These are