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15 Jainism With the transition from Buddhism to Jainism, we move from one of the world’s largest religions to one of the smallest. A recent estimate puts the number of Buddhists in the world today at around 535 million1 and the number of Jains at just over 4 million, almost all of them in India.2 To put this in other terms, Buddhists make up about 8 percent of the world’s population, and Jains compose less than one-half of 1 percent of India’s population. Although there is a vast disparity in the number of practitioners of each, the two traditions share remarkably similar histories, beliefs, and practices. Both accept the concepts of rebirth and karma and seek release from samsara. And both reject the authority of the Vedas and Upanishads, making them heterodox schools of Hindu philosophy. As we explore the Axial Age roots of Jainism, these common features will become evident, and so will the many differences. In spite of its small size, Jainism has had a tremendous influence on Indian history and religions, an impact disproportionate to the actual number of Jains past and present. The most significant contribution of Jainism has been its practice of ahimsa, not harming living beings. No other religion has devoted more attention to the theory, practice, and promotion of nonviolence than Jainism. Some scholars have suggested that the Buddha may have adopted this practice from the Jains when he made it the first of his Five Precepts. Likewise, some have suggested that cow protection and vegetarianism, now prominent features of Hinduism, may have originated with the Jains. The historical data are not clear enough to settle these issues conclusively, but the Jain influence on Mohandas Gandhi is beyond doubt. Gandhi, who grew up in an area with a significant Jain population, acknowledged in his writings that the Jain doctrines 1. Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism, 2nd. Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.), 5. 2. http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html. Accessed 26 April 2013. 143 “In spite of its small size, Jainism has had a tremendous influence on Indian history and religions, an impact disproportionate to the actual number of Jains past and present. The most significant contribution of Jainism has been its practice of ahimsa, not harming living beings.” of ahimsa and satya, or truth telling, were instrumental in formulating his program of nonviolent resistance.3 The Tirthankaras Although modern history locates the origins of Jainism in the same cultural environment that gave rise to classical Hinduism and Buddhism, devout Jains do not. According to the faithful, Jainism is an eternal religion, propounding truths that have no beginning in time. At certain moments in the universal life cycle, these truths must be rediscovered and reintroduced to humanity because they have become forgotten and lost. When an Axial Age sage named Vardhamana Mahavira began to teach the doctrines of Jainism, he was only transmitting a religion that had been taught many times before by others. Each of these previous teachers, says Jain tradition, was a Tirthankara, a word that means a “bridge builder,” one who makes it possible to traverse a river or stream. Like the Buddhists, the Jains frequently speak of gaining liberation from samsara as crossing to the “further shore.” The Tirthankaras were exceptional individuals who showed the way to salvation through their words and example. By their own efforts, they blazed a trail to perfect freedom and represented the highest possible attainment for the soul. The Tirthankaras all taught the same substantial truths, but each presented his revelations in language and concepts appropriate to the people of his times. In the latest turn of the universal cycle, there have been twenty-four Tirthankaras. The twenty-fourth and most recent was Vardhamana Mahavira. Jains would not consider him the founder of Jainism, just its reformer or reviver. The Jains predict there will be twenty-four additional Tirthankaras in this cycle. The next one is expected in approximately 81,500 years. 3. Gandhi exchanged letters extensively with Srimat Rajchandra, a Jain scholar, and was influenced by him. Erik Erikson in his book Gandhi’s Truth writes this about Srimat Rajchandra: “Young Gandhi had met a genuine seeker after truth, and we shall find essential elements of Jain thought in Gandhi’s later ideology.” Erik Erikson, Gandhi’s Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence (New York: W. W. Norton, 1970), 163. 144 | The Age of the Sages [18.188.20.56] Project MUSE (2024-04-26...

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