Jainism For All

Why Bhadrabahu and Sthulbhadra are important figures in Jainism? Acharya Bhadrabahu was the last shrutkevalin in Jainism. He was the disciple of Arya Sambhutvijay . He was the last Acharya of the undivided Jain sangha. He became the head of the Jain Sangha in 317 B.C. Bhadrabahu became famous for his books Kalpa Sutra, Bhadrabahu Samhita and Niryukti. He was the spiritual teacher of Chandragupta Maurya , the founder of Maurya Empire. He was born in 367 BC and died in 298 BC at Shravanbelgola, Karnataka, India.  During his time, the sangha split into two sects: Digambar and Swetambar. Bhadrabahu was the founder of Digambar Jain community. The monks of the Digambar sect do not wear clothes and remain naked. During the leadership of Bhadrabahu and during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, great famine took place. It became very difficult for the mendicants to survive due to scarcity of food grains. Acharya Bhadrabahu together with twelve thousand monks migrated to the southern pa...

  Who are Trishasthi Shalaka Purush in Jainism? According to Jain cosmology, there are 63 illustrious or most worthy persons mentioned. The Jain universal or legendary history is a compilation of the deeds of these illustrious persons. Trishasthi shalaka purush, a Sanskrit epic poem was written by Acharya Hemchandra in the twelfth century. The shalaka purush comprise of the following groups:               24 Tirthankaras (teaching Gods)               12 Chakravartis (universal monarchs, emperor of six continents)                 9 Vasudevas (Narayanas) (warrior heroes)                  9 Prati-vasudevas (Prati-narayanas) (antiheroes)             ...

  Who were Shrut Kevalis? A shrut kevali is one who is conversant with the text and the meaning of the twelve Angas and the fourteen Purvas. Shrut kevalis do not possess kevaljnana or absolute knowledge, but because they have the knowledge of the entire scripture, they can throw light on the fundamental aspects of the religion. The name of the five shrut kevalis are as follows: 1.        Arya Prabhava, 2.        Arya Sayambhava, 3.        Arya Yashobhadra, 4.        Arya Sambhutivijaya 5.          Arya Bhadrabahu After Bhadrabahu, the knowledge of the Purvas became lost. Acharya Sayambhava wrote a book called Dasavaikalika Sutra. Sayambhava was married and had a son Manaka, before he became an ascetic. Sayambhava knew by his supernatural power that his son would only live a short time, so he wrote this book Dasavaik...

   The 11 Ganadharas of Lord Mahavira 1.        Indrabhuti Gautama – He was the resident of the village Gubbara in the kingdom of Magadh. His father was Vasubhuti who was a brahmin having Gautama as gotra. Indrabhuti initiated into the shramana religion at the age of 50 years, practised self-discipline for 30 years and at the age of 80 years he attained kevaljnana in the next morning, previous night Mahavira attained nirvana. He preached religion for 12 years after death of Mahavira and attained nirvana at the age of 92 years. 2.        Agnibhuti Gautama – He was the second younger brother of Indrabhuti Gautama. He took initiation at the age of 46 and after 12 years he attained kevaljnana. He preached religion for 16 years and thereafter attained nirvana at the age of 74, during the life time of Mahavira. 3.        Vayubhuti Gautama – He was the third younger brother of Indrabhuti...

The Spiritual Mission of Lord Mahavira From now commenced the tirthankara life of Lord Mahavira. Having attained omniscience, the absolute knowledge (Kevaljnan), Mahavira left the village Jambhiya on that very night and reached Madhyama Pawa the next morning. There he stayed at a garden called Mahasena. When the people came to know about Mahavira’s arrival, they flocked to see him and hear his lectures. Mahavira preached for three hours (one prahar). The gathering was enthralled by his knowledge and the sweetness of his speech. The fame of his omniscience and his extraordinary personality spread everywhere. He broke the tradition of speaking in Sanskrit and began to preach in the common dialect, called Ardhamagdhi or Prakrit. The Jain Agam scriptures were therefore written in Ardhamagdhi or Prakrit language. At this time, a sacrifice ceremony was happening in the house of a brahmin named Somilacharya. Many great Hindu brahmins came from different places to join this ceremony. Indra...

Mahavira is the 24th Jain tirthankara born in the avasarpini time cycle. The religion preached by the previous tirthankaras was known as the religion of the Shramans or of the Nirgranthas, which Mahavira named as Jainism. All the tirthankaras have preached the same religion with slight variations. The complexion of Mahavira is golden and symbol is lion. The chaitya tree under which he got omniscience is teak.  Before discussing the life of Mahavira, we shall proceed to a brief consideration of the political, economic, social and religious condition of India at the time of Mahavira's birth. The political condition – India was divided into a congeries of many small independent states and there was no single empire. The power of the kshatriyas were at the bottom after the disastrous war of Mahabharat. The time referred here was ninth century B.C. In Northern part of India, the kingdoms existed were Magadha, Anga, Videha, Vajji, Kashi, Koshala, Malla, Vatsa, Panchala, Kuru, Matsya, Ava...

Lord Parsvanath, who immediately preceded Mahavir, is acknowledged as a historical person of importance. He was the 23 rd  tirthankara of the present avasarpini time cycle according to Jain cosmology. He is thought to be the pathfinder of Jainism as a religion. He was born around 717 BC, which is 273years before the birth of Mahavir, the 24th tirthankara. The Jain sources place him between 9 th and 8 th centuries BCE.  The complexion of Parsvanath is green and his symbol is snake. The chaitya tree under which he got omniscience is dhataki. Parsvanath had nine previous incarnations out of which 3 rd , 5 th , 7 th and 9 th were in Devlok. In the 1 st incarnation, Parsvanath was born as the son of royal priest Viswabhumi. Here his name was Marubhuti. He had an elder brother Kamath who had a cruel, wicked character and was always envying Marubhuti. It is found that Kamath was the cause of death in all the incarnations of Marubhuti. In the 2 nd incarnation Marubhuti was bor...

  Lord Neminath or Arishtanemi, the 22 nd Tirthankar Arishtanemi or Lord Neminath was the 22 nd Jain tirthankara of the avasarpini time cycle. The historical date of Lord Neminath was around 3100 BC. Jain tradition place him as a contemporary of Lord Krishna, the ninth and last Vasudeva. He is mentioned in Rigved Sanhita as an important personality. The complexion of Arishtanemi is black and symbol is conch (sankha). The chaitya tree under which he got omniscience is vetasa. Lord Neminath had eight previous incarnations, among which four times he was incarnated as God (2 nd , 4 th , 6 th , 8 th ). The father of Lord Neminath was Samudra Vijaya, who was king of Sauripura and mother Siva Devi. He was born on Shukla Panchami i.e., fifth day of bright moon in the month of Shravana. While he was in mother’s womb, his mother saw a wheel (nemi) of black jewels (arishta) in her dream. Therefore, his father decided his name to be Arishtanemi which later on became popular as Neminath...