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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision
cause of the boundless miseries of the present world is man's uncontrolled tendency to possess. Man believes that possession brings happiness. But, in fact, possession is the cause of miseries and bondage. Possession enslaves man to external things. As the bee sucks honey from the flower without destroying it, so the welfare seeking man should do the least possible harm to another in his worldy life. Thus, expounding the five great vows Bhagwan Mahavira says, "As the wind blows across flaming fire, so ideal people observing these vows will pass through the Samsara (transmigratory existence) and attain eternal joy." Lord Mahavira has said that wants and desires have no end and only the sky is the limit for them.
Attachment to wordly objects results in the ever-lasting cycle of birth and death. Therefore, one who aspires spiritual liberation should withdraw from all attachment to pleasures which arises because of the indiscriminate uses of the five
senses.
Jainism believes in the potential divinity of man. Given freedom for development, every individual can attain supreme spiritual progress. Hence, any interference with an individual's development would lead to spiritual degeneration. Violence is nothing, but such an interference with individual freedom, hence, it must be shunned in thought, word and deed.
Bhagwan Mahavira discarded the false importance of gender and caste and established the importance of good conduct.
कम्मुणा बंभणो होइ, कम्मुणा होड़ खत्तिओ
वइसो कम्मुणा होइ, सुद्दो होइ कम्मुणा IF
[One is a Brahmin, a Kshatriya, a Vaishya or a Shoodra according to one's Karma.]
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