Jainism Eternal and Universal Path for Enlightenment

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

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Jainism : The Eternal and Universal path for Enlightenment
govern the universe. Who created laws and why the laws are as they are and not different. The theist can take refuse behind God who created the laws as they are, but then this takes the question only one step back. We can only say that the nature is like this, like what we observe; the laws are eternal and are in the nature of things. To find a deeper meaning to the answer one must strive for enlightenment. This is the purpose of Jainism.
The basic approach of Jainism is that the purpose of all living beings is to develop consciousness to the fullest extent so that the true nature of the universe is experienced.The sensory organs have limitations of perception and can not know the true nature. Jainism has given highest status to humans, even above "heavenly" beings (devas) and other forms because only humans are capable of conscious evolution, by will or by thinking, by adopting certain methods. No other species has this capability and all other species are at the mercy of the environment to evolve either in a passive way or by active interaction. Attitude or Bh'y is the interface between mind and consciousness. Everything, including Mok-a, can be achieved by Bh-v. Therefore the primary focus of Jainism is Bh?v or attitude.
The Universe consists of two entities: jiva (living, which can be called bios) and Ajiva (non living, which includes matter and other non-living entities that control its transformation). The ultimate goal of jiva is to completely dissociate itself from material and attain a pure state where after it resides on an edge (the upper edge: Siddha Shila) of the Universe, separated completely from the material world. That is probably the ultimate state, where jiva and ajiva are completely separated and free of each others influence, towards which the whole universe is evolving. To understand the basic approach of Jainism and to understand the path to enlightenment, it may be desirable to reinterpret Jainism in terms of modern thought and amalgamate it, as far as possible, with modern scientific knowledge.
Jain darsan (or philosophy) is one of the oldest and original systems, independent of all other thoughts, conceived and enunciated by Ri-abha, who reigned over India. The time of his rule is not well determined. It is prehistoric (Older than Mahabharat and Ramayan), certainly pre-Indus (older than 1500 BC) since seals depicting Jain saints and practitioners of Jainism are found in Mohan Jo Daro, Harappa, Mathura and other sites and inscriptions of Siddhas and Arhats are found in Udaigiri hills and Hathigumpha. It is also mentioned in Rigveda, considered to be one of the oldest books in the world (ca -3000 BC) and also Yajurveda, written a little later. Lot of