Jainism

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophical Publishing House

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JAINISM
Jainas, you will find in that the lives of these Jinas. The life of the only one which is given there at all fully — and the fullness is of a very limited description - is that of the twenty-fourth and last, He who was called Mahāvira, the mighty Hero. He stands to the Jaina as the last representative of the Teachers of the world. As I said, He is contemporary with Sākhya Muni, and by some He is said to be His kinsman. His life was simple, with little incident apparently, but great teachings. Coming down from loftier regions to His latest incarnation, that in which He was to obtain illumination, He at first guided His course into a Brahmana family, where, it would seem from the account given, He had intended to take birth; but Indra, the King of the Devas, seeing the coming of the Jina, said that it was not right that He should be born among the Brahmanas, for ever the Jina was a Kshatriya and in a royal house must He be born. So Indra sent one of the Devas to guide the birth of the Jina to the family of King Siddhārtha, in which He was finally born. His birth was surrounded by those signs of joy and delight