In the 5th-6th century BC, there arose
in India a powerful school of thought/philosophy, which, according to many
historians, owed its origin to the opposition of the common people to the way
the Hindu religion was being practised at the time. It had become a stronghold of the priestly
class or the Brahmins who reigned supreme in all matters of religion. Religion had been reduced to a mere practice
of meaningless and expensive rituals, mantras uttered in upper-class Sanskrit
which the common man could neither understand nor afford. It failed to offer any mental peace, moral
succour or solace to the soul and was just a rigid set of do’s and don’ts which
the Brahmins had made themselves authorities of, and which they used at will to
make themselves wealthy and powerful.
Values such as kindness, truthfulness, honesty, doing good to your
fellow beings had no place in the religion they preached.
Against this backdrop, arose a thinker and philosopher who
spoke the language of the common man, did not hesitate to mingle with him, and
gave understandable answers to moral dilemmas faced in daily life. This was Mahavira (the great hero) who seemed
to have conquered everything within.
Ordinary people, common men and women, flocked to listen to his sermons
wherever he went. He appealed to the goodness
inherent in all men as he preached kindness to all living things. He called it ahimsa or non-violence. Practice ahimsa mindfully, in thought, word
and deed, even to the invisible microbes in the air around. One must respect the sanctity and dignity of
others, he said, just as one expects one’s own sanctity and dignity to be
respected. Practice Satya (truth). Always be truthful towards yourself, towards
others. Practice Asteya, don’t take anything which has not been given to
you. Practice Brahmacharya,
faithfulness to your partner if you are married, and abstinence from sex if you
are a monk or a holy man. And lastly, practice
Aparigraha, ie work at developing an attitude of non-attachment to
worldly things, money, property. If you
practiced these five things to the extent of vows, this was religion. More than anything else, he preached
self-discipline, a constant cleansing of the soul, which leads to spiritual development
and release from the cycle of birth and death.
The aim/goal of practising these five vows was to set oneself free from
this cycle, attain Nirvana. In short, enlightenment,
to Mahavira, came from self-realisation, self-cultivation and self-restraint. What he preached was simplicity
personified….but as we all know, it’s the simple things that are the hardest to
practice.
Who
was he? He was born 540 years before
Christ (which means to say, sixty years before human history was even recorded
in the West), on the thirteenth day of the rising moon in Chaitra which is
March-April of the Gregorian calendar.
This day is celebrated as his birthday, Mahavir Jayanti, by his
followers or Jains, so-named after their lord who is called Jina, the great
conqueror. He was born a prince, the son
of King Siddharth and Queen Trishala in the kingdom of Videha, which roughly
corresponds to Bihar in modern-day India.
Interestingly, the king and queen were descendants of the Ikshvaku
dynasty. This is the same dynasty to which
Lord Vishnu was born as Rama and to which Buddha was also born. He renounced his princely life and left
home in his late twenties in search of the truth. He lived the life of an ascetic for the next
12 years practicing severe penances until he attained Keval Jnan
(omniscient truth). He preached Jainism for
30 years and, according to some historians, was a contemporary of the
Buddha. He had followers among Kings and
common people alike; the rulers of the ancient kingdoms of Magadha, Anga and
Videha all gave up Hinduism to follow his precepts. He is said to have died at the age of 72, in
a place called Pawapuri, also in Bihar, which is a place of pilgrimage for
Jains from the world over. His life is considered a spiritual light
and the night of his nirvana is commemorated by Jains as Diwali, the same
time that Hindus celebrate their festival of lights.
Mahavira is best remembered in the Indian
traditions for his teaching that ahimsa is the greatest moral
virtue of all. He taught that ahimsa covers
all living things and injuring any being in any form whatsoever, affects one's
rebirth, future wellbeing, and the extent of one’s suffering. Centuries
later, Mahatma Gandhi, and following in Gandhi’s footsteps, Martin Luther King
and Nelson Mandela adopted ahimsa as their guiding principle, following which
they led entire nations and peoples to liberation from oppression, without
recourse to armed struggle. He taught us
that before we can hope to conquer what lies outside, we must first look deep
inside and conquer what’s within.
Mahavira
proclaimed in India that religion is a reality and not a mere social
convention. It is really true that
salvation cannot be had by merely observing external ceremonies. Religion cannot make any difference between
man and man. (Rabindranath
Tagore)
It never ceases to amaze me that all this was propounded in
our country before history, before time
itself, was chronicled in the West.
Truly, we need to stop and take stock of who we are, how far we have
come and which way we are headed.
Image credits:
wikipedia.org
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