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Lord Mahavira and the Mission of Jainism
THE
HE great importance of Lord Mahavira for Jainism is emphsized by the mere fact that the very name 'Jainism' derives from Jina, the victor as Lord Mahavira was called. He gave to Jainism the final shape for the current cosmical age. He hailed from a Kshatrya family in which the aristocratic tradition was integrated by a kind of simple democracy based on the feeting for human dignity. Bihar was a picturesque background to a religion of which Lord Mahavira was the last great prophet. If one travels through Bihar and visits Pavapuri the place where Lord Mahavira was born, and the nearby laketemple, where he, obtained omniscience, if one visits Rajgiri, where the lecturing-hall of the Tirthankara was built up by the devas and where he preached to men and animals, one feels an atmosphere of saintliness. And one feels deeply moved if one climbs barefooted in the Parashnath-Hills, where most of the Tirthankaras obtained omniscience.
In Bihar one feels that the 24 Tirthankaras have cosmic importance and that the number 24 reflects the rhythm of time taken as a cosmic entity. And it is certainly not a mere accident that we find this number of 24 elders in that
Jain Education International
Lothar Wendel
Count Hermann Keyserling Library, Pilani (Rajasthan)
book of the bible which is revealing us the great world drama, filling our hearts with awe and admiration of the glory of God-in Jainism God is equal to Jiva considered in difference to Buddhism as substance which is immortal, blissfull and of unlimited powers.-These Tirthamkaras belong together like the ages and their teaching is one. But to our human eyes the most conspicuous morg them are the first and the last : Lord Rishaba Deva with the sign of the bull and Lord Mahavira, with the sign of the lion. Lord Mahavira was a contemporary of Lord Buddha who lived also mostly in Bihar and as late Dr. Vate suggests they might have repeatedly met in rainy-season. Nonetheless Jainism is quite independent from Buddism inspite of some. fartures they have in common.
What are the essential features of Jainism? One of its most conspicuous features is certainly its very old age. Instead of a single founder who is a historical person in its usual sense, in Buddhism, when 24 Tirthankers, who descended to the earliest times of humanity.
A renowned Jain Scholar S. C. Diwakar emphasized the antiquity of Jainism in a paper read on the 5th
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