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Religion, Practice and Science of Non-Violence
this he could do by his own efforts without the help of any Supreme authority or mediatory priests or rituals. To his discourses he welcomed people of all castes and all classes: men, women, the wealthy and the poor, the educated and the uneducated. More and more people followed his teachings. He organized his followers in a four-fold Sangha - the aryas (monks), the arvikas (nuns), the shravakas (lay men) and the shravikas (lay women).
Mahavira passed away at the age of seventy-two, at a place called Majjhima Pava or Pavapuri in Patna, Bihar.
After his death, Mahavira's teachings were collected in fourteen texts which came to be known as Purwas. Later, when these texts were lost owing to a famine in Bihar, a council was held at Pataliputra and the texts were compiled again into twelve Angas. These Angas together with commentaries on them are the most important sacred books of the Jainas.
One of the most important teachings of Mahavira was the strict observance of non-violence towards all living beings. Jainas accept and advocate non-violence as the highest ideal of life and as the means of attaining nirvana or liberation of the soul.1 Here are some examples from the Jaina scriptures:
A religionist should cease to injure living beings; for, this has been called the liberation which consists in peace.2 A religionist, if beaten, should not be angry.3 All beings hate pain,
therefore, one should not kill them. This is the quintessence of wisdom
not to kill anything. Know this to be the legitimate conclusion
from the principle of the reciprocity with regard to non-killing. 1The first ethical principle (vrata) in Jainism is that a Jaina shall not kill or be violent, but shall be kind to all creation; the other four are truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (asteya), sex-restraint (brāhmacharya), and non-acceptance of unnecessary gifts (aparigraha). These five vows are to be observed partially (anuvrata) by the house-holders, and completely and rigorously (mahāvrata) by a monk.
2 Kritānga-sútra, 1.3.4.19.20. 3Uttarādhyana-sutra, 2.26. 4 Kritānga-sūtra, 1.11,9-10
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