Jainism is a Hindu School of Philosophy

Jainism is a school of philosophy that emerged from Hinduism but split up into a separate religion; but, modern day Jains associate themselves more with Hinduism and the Jain faith has been reabsorbed into Hinduism.

The philosophy was founded and developed by 24 Thirthankaras or saints. The last of them was Vardhamana Mahavira who like Buddha was a kshatriya by birth and became a Jain saint later.

Like Buddhism, Jainism originally was against the Vedic scriptures. The Jains believed in the caste system but not in the rest of the Vedic scriptures. They believe in the existance of souls and non-living matter but they do not believe in the existence of God. They believe that a soul’s wish to interact with matter causes it to accumulate karmas thus resulting in birth-death and rebirth.

Their concept of salvation is called Kaivalya. The soul after it stops interacting with matter, emerges with pure knowledge and exists forever in this state without taking birth again. In contrast, according to the Vedas, salvation can only be obtained by meditating on Paramatma and not on atma. The soul always has knowledge per the Vedas. It is never devoid of knowledge. The knowledge is only hidden like a lamp hidden by a shade. The Vedas also agree that meditating on ones own soul results in Kaivalya moksha but this type of moksha is not permanent. Two things can happen with Kaivalya mpksha; the soul at the beginning of the next kalpa would have to take birth and proceed through the cycles of birth-death and re-birth again till it comes to realise Paramatma. Or, at the state of Kaivalya it is successful in spending all the good karmas, it can reach the abode of Paramatma as its Karmic balance is now zero since it would have reached the state of kaivalya only after spending all of its bad karma.

Ahimsa or non-violence is an important aspect of Jainism. The Jain saints walk with a broom in their hand. They sweep the path with the broom before stepping on it so that they do not harm any living creatures. They do not drink water unless it is leftover from cooking food. They believe that drinking water kills germs but the karma of killing these germs by drinking water left over from cooking would go to the cook. They do not even take bath. Personal hygine is given foremost importance in the Vedas; true that bathing may kill some germs that live in water but these extreme principles are not practical in life. Self-torture is not approved by the Vedas. Our body is a temple as Paramatma resides in our hearts. We have to take care of our body properly so as to show respect to Him.Though Jainism preached ahimsa it imposed swahimsa (self-torture) on its followers. The rules were very rigid and extreme leading to its decline.The Vedic religion condemns unnecessary violence but sometimes violence becomes necessary. Soldiers have to protect the citizens from invading forces. This cannot be condemned as violence. Similarly to lead a healthy life it is necessary to maintain personal hygine, killing microbes or other creatures unknowingly to maintain personal hygine cannot be condemned as violence either.

It has been incorrectly mentioned that idol worship was started by Jains. We know from Valmiki Ramayana that there were many temples with idols. Rama himself worshipped Lord Ranganatha of Sri Rangam in his palace. It is also mentioned in the Aranya kanda that the sages worshipped the idols of various deities in temples. The Jains do not believe in God; they do not have an idol for God but they worship the idols of the Thirtankaras and other saints.