YJA Convention 1994 07 Chicago IL First

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

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Religion and Culture of the Jains
There was a time when, due largely to ignorance and apathy, certain wrong notions, misunderstanding and erroneous presumptions had become current, even in the circles of the supposedly well-informed, regarding the genesis, antiquity, nature, scope and significance of the Jain system of religion, thought and culture. Thanks to the patient studies and laborious investigations of a horde of learned indologists, Western and Indian, the fog of ignorance and unwarranted prejudice has been considerably dispelled. It is now no more necessary to prove that Jainism is an absolutely independent, highly developed, very comprehensive and ancient system, not unreasonably described as "the oldest living religion', or 'the earliest home religion of India'. It is, indeed, found to have been in existence, in one form or the other, or under one name or the other, since the very dawn of human civilization, continuing without break throughout the pre-historical (pre-written historical), proto-historical and historical times.
The late Heinrich Zimmer, who is reputed to have been the greatest German Indologist of modern times, in his celebrated posthumous work, The Philosophies of India, conceded that there is truth in the Jain idea that their religion goes back to a remote antiquity, the antiquity in question being that of the pre-Aryan, socalled Dravidian period, and that Jainism is the oldest of all Dravidian-born philosophies and religions. He also psychologically demonstrated that Jain Yoga originated in pre-Aryan India, and has nothing to do with orthodox Brahmanism which simply appropriated it in later centuries. Noel Retting, another Indologist, writes, "Only in Jainism, of all the living religions, do we see a fusion of the primitive with the profound. It has preserved elements from the first stage of man's religious awareness, animism. It affirms the separateness of spirit from matter, even though our modern philosophers and religionists regard neither form of dualism as untenable. Despite the opinion of
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By Dr. Jyoti Prasad
these men, Jainism is fundamentally scientific. And, it may very well be, contrary to the opinions of many anthropologists and students of comparative religion, the oldest living faith." And, Professor L. P. Tessitory is of opinion that "Jainism is of a very high order. Its important teachings are based upon science. The more the scientific knowledge advances the more the Jain teachings will be proven".
In fact, the Jain system of thought is so wonderfully consistent with modern realism and science that one may easily be tempted to question its antiquity, about which, however, there is now no doubt. Moreover, as Dr. Walthur Schubring observes, "He who has a thorough knowledge of the structure of the world cannot but admire the inward logic and harmony of Jain ideas. Hand in hand with the refined cosmographical ideas goes a high standard of astronomy and mathematics." Dr. Hermann Jacobi also believes that "Jainism goes back to a very early period, and to primitive currents of religious and metaphysical speculation, which gave rise to the oldest Indian philosophies. They (the Jains) seem to have worked out their system from the most primitive nations about matter."
One of the fundamental as well as primitive ideas on which Jain metaphysics is based is often described as animism, because Jainism believes that not only all human beings and all the animals, but also all insects, all vegetation, even earth, stones, water, fire and air are living organisms, are all endowed with their respective souls, and, therefore, represent embodied life, for all forms of living beings, however lowly, small or insignificant, proving at the same time that 'ahimsa' (non-injury to life), which is the very keynote of Jainism, is not only the greatest conception, but also one of the most ancient in the world. As the late Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of free India, observed, "Jainism has contributed to the