Corduan - Pocket Guide to World Religions

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006. – 144 p.

ISBN 978-0-8308-6708-0 (digital)

ISBN 978-0-8308-2705-3 (print)

 

It was New Year’s Eve 1999, the birth of the new millennium. A famous TV personality was interviewing the Dalai Lama, head of Tibetan Buddhism. “Would you tell me, Your Holiness,” fawned the reporter, “do they celebrate New Year’s in the Islamic religion?”

 

It is, of course, possible that the interviewer thought the Dalai Lama, though a Buddhist himself, was a good source of information about Islam. More likely, this could have been a slip of the tongue. But most probably, the reporter was genuinely confused.

 

And who wouldn’t be these days? There was a time in America when the question “What is your religion?” was intended to elicit an answer such as “Presbyterian,” “Catholic,” or “Jewish.” Everyone seemed to fit into a preconceived pattern of religion. Now we are becoming far more used to the idea that the answer to the question about someone’s religion may include Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism or any number of other faiths.

 

Your coworkers, fellow students or neighbors down the street may be immigrants who have brought their home culture with them. In previous generations, people coming to this country often left their original identity behind them, seeking to blend in and copying the lifestyle of those they perceived as being typically American. Many immigrants even Anglicized their names so as to be less conspicuous, whereas nowadays getting to know your new neighbors may begin with the seemingly insurmountable hurdle of learning to say their names correctly.

 

Here’s the bad news: this book will be of little help to you with learning to pronounce your neighbor’s name. But the good news is that this book will help you understand at least one part of your new neighbor’s culture: his or her religion. This book is written for those of us who do not know anything about other religions and do not have the option of subjecting ourselves to lengthy and laborious study.

 

Imagine we find out that the new family who has just moved in across from us is Hindu, and we would like to have them come over to our house for dessert or a meal, but we don’t want to embarrass ourselves by not having a clue as to what they believe. Much as we would want to, we cannot afford to take a week off from work to do an in-depth study of Hinduism. We need some quick, practical help—now. Of course, we can go on the Internet and see if we can find what we need courtesy of Google. Unfortunately, although we are bound to get a lot of information instantaneously, we are going to find so many conflicting and obscure claims that, without further help, all of that content may not be of more use than an encyclopedia written in a foreign language. This book is intended to fill this gap.

 

* * *

 

Jainism

NAME. The name Jainism is derived from the Sanskrit word jina, which means “conqueror.” Thus a Jain is literally a “follower of the conqueror,” which refers to the founder of the religion, Mahavira. Even though there are significant differences between the religions, to an outsider Jainism may appear similar to Hinduism.

 

NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION. There are approximately four million Jains in the world today. Jainism is an Indian religion, and most of its adherents live in India. However, strong Jain communities also exist in other parts of the world, such as Kenya, where there has been a sizable Indian immigration. There even is an active Jain temple in Chicago.

 

SYMBOLS. Jainism is a religion with many symbols, but for millennia it had no universal symbol. It was not until 1975, when a global convention of Jains met to observe the 2,500th anniversary of Mahavira’s death, that they agreed on a single symbol to stand for all of Jainism. As might be expected with such group work, the new symbol combined a number of existing ones. There are five elements to this drawing, and they provide a summary of the religion.

 

1. The outside form is the shape of a person’s torso, the shape in which Jains imagine the universe to exist.

 

2. The arc at the top represents the head of the human shape, with the dot symbolizing the residence of those who have attained liberation.

 

3. The three dots underneath stand for the three Jain principles: right faith, right knowledge and right conduct.

 

4. The swastika here (as in Buddhism and Hinduism) has many meanings, none of them racist. It reminds people of their entanglement in the cycle of reincarnations, and it also speaks of the four kinds of beings in need of salvation: gods, humans, animals and demons.

 

5. The hand indicates blessing as well as warning. Inside it is a wheel with twenty-four spokes, one for each of the ancient teachers of the religion (the Tirthankaras), and inside the wheel is an inscription of the word ahimsa, which means “nonviolence,” the most basic principle of Jainism.

 

Also, frequently there is a Sanskrit motto inscribed below the drawing, calling on living souls to be servants to each other. Another popular symbol for Jainism is a broom and bowl, depicting the life of the Jain monk, who uses his bowl to beg for food and uses a broom to sweep the path ahead of him when he walks so that he won’t accidentally destroy any living beings, such as insects.

 

HISTORY. Jainism was founded by a man named Mahavira who lived in the sixth century B.C., roughly contemporary with the Buddha. He was the son of a king who renounced his wealth and life of leisure in order to find enlightenment. During the next twelve years, he lived a life of extreme selfmortification, punishing his body in order to liberate his soul. Finally, after pushing his body to the brink of death many times, he experienced a flash of enlightenment. He received complete peace of mind and a state of omniscience that allowed him to be aware of all truth in the universe and all his previous lives. However (unlike the Buddha’s case), this experience did not cause Mahavira to cease his ascetic lifestyle. He continued to live in the same way and recruited followers to emulate his experience.

 

Jainism broke with Hinduism because it did not acknowledge the caste system or the Hindu scriptures as divine. Furthermore, due to Jainism’s central exhortation not to harm any living beings, standard occupations such as farming (which involves killing plants) were closed to its followers. Thus, Jainism began its existence in the role of a minority religion—but this is a role of which it has made the most. Jain laypersons focused on commerce and finance, where they became quite successful, and to this day Jains are most likely associated with that segment of the population.

 

SCRIPTURES. Jainism produced its share of sacred writings, but it is hard to point to any one book as the scripture of Jainism. The two main subgroups each have their own writings. The most popular collection is called the Agam Sutras, but they do not receive universal acceptance by Jains.

 

MAJOR BELIEFS. Like most South Asian religions, Jainism’s main focus is on a person’s liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. Again, similarly to Hinduism and Buddhism, this religion teaches the law of karma, namely that our present actions will directly influence what kind of a being we will be in the next life. However, Jainism has its own way of picturing these realities.

 

Jainism does not teach that we are all part of one massive spiritual reality but rather that each individual living being is a distinct soul with its own identity. This soul, called a jiva, is trapped in the cycle of births and rebirths but would, if given a chance, rise to the top of the universe, where it could enjoy peace. What prevents this happy outcome is the presence of ajiva, or dead matter, which clings to the soul and keeps it trapped in its current bondage. Jainism pictures this ajiva as physical granules that weigh the soul down, and the more bad karma one accrues, the more ajiva gets piled on one’s jiva. Thus the point of the religion is to purify one’s soul of all ajiva in order to enter the permanent state of bliss.

 

Removal of the karma matter from one’s soul is something all persons need to do for themselves. Gods play at best an ambivalent role in Jainism. It vigorously denies the existence of a creator or sustainer of the universe. The gods of Hinduism are considered as being real but also as being every bit as much in need of salvation as are human beings. Because of the gods’ greater power, a Jain layperson may call on a deity for thisworldly help, but the gods are powerless when it comes to anyone’s salvation, even their own. They must wait until they are reborn in human form themselves before they can attain enlightenment.

 

Ultimately, only those who are able to devote their entire lives to the realization of liberation will attain release. It takes the full energy of a monk or nun to do justice to the five vows necessary to attain this goal.

 

1. Never harm any living being. This is ahimsa, the most basic principle of Jainism, and a fully devoted monk will do all he can do to avoid harming even the smallest insect or plant. Eating is an unavoidable compromise, though in the end a monk will even give up food in order to remove all karma. For laypeople, this vow translates into maintaining a vegetarian diet.

 

2. Always tell the truth. All truth is relative to a person’s point of view and so can easily be misunderstood. Thus one must qualify all of one’s speech so that no one can accidentally hear an unintended falsehood.

 

3. Never steal property.

 

4. Avoid all sexual contact. Again, laypeople will observe a less stringent version, namely marital fidelity.

 

5. Do not get attached to anything in the material world. Part of the idea here is to limit one’s sensory input as much as possible. The less one senses, the less one is attached and the more likely one’s soul will be freed.

 

Mahavira showed the way to enlightenment. He was a jina (a “conqueror”) and a Tirthankara (a “ford finder”). As a matter of fact, Jainism teaches that he was the last of twenty-four similar Tirthankaras, who appeared in previous ages. The further we go back in time, the taller the Tirthankaras were and the longer they lived, but they all had a similar story as the offspring of royalty who sought and taught the way to liberation. Even though the Tirthankaras are decidedly not gods, they are worshiped like gods in Jain temples.

 

SUBGROUPS. There are two major subgroups of Jainism and a number of smaller ones. One group goes by the name of Svetambara, which means “clad in white,” referring to the white clothes worn by their monks. The other main sect is the Digambara, meaning “clad in atmosphere,” indicating that their monks wear air only.

 

This sartorial distinction carries some further differentiations. Since the Digambara hold that one cannot attain enlightenment while wearing clothes, and since they say that it would be wrong for a woman ever to go naked, they do not believe that any person can ever be saved while incarnated in a female body. The Svetambara agree that a woman should never be without clothes, but since they do believe that salvation is possible while wearing white cloth, they allow for the liberation of women as well as men. In fact, because of this distinction, the list of Tirthankaras differs between these sects as well, with Svetambaras saying that one of them, named Subidhi, was female.

 

WORSHIP PRACTICES. For the devoted Jain monk, worship is not a viable concept. He or she finds enlightenment by strictly observing precepts. Reliance on any supernatural agency will only get in the way of one’s own efforts. Ideally, the ascetic will bring life to a culmination by fasting in a terminal act of meditation, thus assuring the removal of all remaining karma.

 

For Jain laypeople, worship is an important way of preparing for future incarnations that hopefully will make liberation possible. In a Jain temple, people focus on the teachings of the Tirthankaras and venerate their statues by waving lights, brushes and mirrors in front of them. Also, worshipers sit at low tables on which there are grains of rice and make designs, such as the swastika symbol, as a focus for their meditation.

 

RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS. Jain temples are usually highly ornate and, in distinction to Hindu and Buddhist temples, are usually white on the outside. On the inside, there are various aids to meditation, such as decorations and the above-mentioned tables. The statues of Tirthankaras are separated from the main hall, and worshipers may enter that area only if they have covered their faces so as not to contaminate the purity of the area with their breath.

 

HOME PRACTICES. As pointed out above, Jain belief holds that laypersons can work to reduce their karma, not in order to attain salvation, but so as to improve their chances of enlightenment in the next life. In the meantime, pure Jain doctrine does not provide help for this-worldly problems. Daily reflection on Jain principles is important, but for the common person, so is the observance of whatever spiritual help one may need to make it through life’s mundane affairs. So, if you visit a Jain home, do not be surprised to find objects associated with Hindu practice.

 

CLOTHING. As stated above, the major division among Jains has to do with the clothing—or absence thereof—of the monks. However, laypersons are not directly affected by these rules. They need to dress modestly, but they are not required to wear particular types of clothes.

 

DIET. How can you eat anything if you are never supposed to harm any living beings and if food, by its nature, is derived from living beings? Laypeople stick strictly to a vegetarian diet, but since plants are also living beings, this is still a compromise, and Jains know that they are incurring karma in the process. Monks attempt to reduce this liability by never eating anything unless it was already designated to be thrown away. But even this measure is not considered to be effective by itself, which is why the monk’s life is supposed to end with the act of self-starvation. Since it is unlikely that you will have Jain monks for dinner in your home, you will be perfectly all right in serving a purely vegetarian meal to Jain acquaintances. (This is not to say that a Jain monk might not come to a Jain person’s home, but then it would usually be only to observe a fast together.)

 

CALENDAR. Jains follow a lunar calendar, adjusted to keep step with the solar year. All groups celebrate the birthday of Mahavira, which falls roughly into April by the Gregorian calendar. The second major commemoration is an annual time of fasting, reflection and prayer, which can last up to ten days. During this time, monks and laypeople spend time together in the temple, reaffirming what might otherwise be a tenuous bond between them. But the two main sects follow different schedules; the Svetambaras have their event (which they call Paryushan) in August, while the Digambaras observe their fast (called Das Lakshan) in September.

 

Because Jainism has produced a culture based on rigorous ethical principles, particularly a high respect for truth, Jain businesspeople have a reputation for meticulous honesty.