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.

Buddhism is a Hindu School of Philosophy Part 1 of 2

Buddha preached non-violence. In reality we cannot make a clear distinction between violence and non-violence. Sometimes violence is necessary for the overall good. Soldiers cannot say that they follow non-violence and surrender to invading forces. Military violence is wrong when soldiers invade another country but violence becomes ethically necessary to protect the people from invading forces. In order to protect their people from invaders they have to fight with the invading forces. Surgery can be seen as violence as it causes great physical discomfort but in the end it only makes us feel better. The Vedic teachings were more practical. Taking up arms to fight is approved for Kshatriyas but not for Brahmins. A Kshatriya has to protect his people from criminals and invaders whereas a Brahmin protects people through public service by serving as an engineer, doctor, lawyer etc.

Buddha’s followers were mainly Kshatriyas in the beginning; they were made up of his family members. One of his cousins Devadutta tried to assassinate Buddha in the hopes that he may lead the monks. He saw power behind this new movement and wanted to use it to gain control over other kingdoms.

Many Buddhist monasteries throughout medieval period interfered with the policies of the ancient kingdoms. They tried to show the cast system in bad light in order to win converts. The cast system was based on profession (see my earlier postings on caste system).  Soldiers and members of the royal family were Kshatriyas, engineers, doctors, lawyers, priests etc were Brahmins, merchants and farmers were Vysyas, trades people were Sudras. Without cast system, everyone would be the same and would follow the same rules. Then a soldier has to follow the same rule as a priest which means that he cannot take up arms to defend his people. A merchant has to follow the rules of a Brahmin and cannot accumulate wealth or make profit. Every profession has its pros and cons; abolishing the caste system wouldn’t have improved the situation as farmers would be farmer, a merchant would remain as a merchant and so will a plumber.

There is also a misconception that vegetarianism spread in India due to the teachings of Buddha. Being a Kshatriya, Buddha himself ate meat and fish. Buddha’s cousin Devadutta tried to form a separate group. He tried to influence Buddha’s followers. He stipulated that the Buddha agree to abide by the following rules for the monks: they should dwell only in forests, live entirely on alms obtained by begging, wear only robes made of discarded rags, dwell at the foot of a tree and not consume fish and flesh. Buddha agreed to all except the last. He refused to make vegetarianism compulsory for monks; whereas for the followers of Vedic religion who take up the vow of sanyasa, vegetarianism is compulsory.

Buddha was an iconoclast but his later day followers started to use images of Buddha for worship. People need something to concentrate on. They cannot meditate upon nothing. Modern day meditation classes use laser pointers as an aid.
Buddha also blamed the Brahmins and their rituals. The Vedic tradition is a blend of theory and rituals. Just like we have theory and lab work in Science. Learning the one without the other will result in failures. There may have been a few Brahmins who had no grasp of the theory and relied entirely on rituals but it cannot be said that all Brahmins are ritualistic.. Buddha revolted against rituals but his later day followers incorporated many rituals including tantrism. It gave rise to many monks using tantras to perform magic. Mass hypnosis was also practiced and many kings were won over to their side through such practices. Thus the monks seeked to gain huge control over the Indian sub continent.

It was only after the arrival of Adi Sankaracharya, Buddhism declined. Vedic religion was re-established.

Buddhism is a Hindu School of Philosophy Part 1 of 2

Many people don’t realize the fact that Buddhism is an off-shoot of Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma). Buddha was born as Siddhartha. He was a Kshatriya prince and belonged to the clan of Shakyas. He lived in the capital of Kapilavastu and was married to Yashodhara. He had a son called Rahula. He had led a protective life. His father believing in a prophecy shielded Siddhartha from knowing about death, sickness and old age. One day he happened to see a funeral procession, an old man bent with age and a man suffering from some disease. He was a compassionate person and couldn’t understand the cause for so much suffering. Thus he left his kingdom and lived with some Brahmins to learn the Vedantic principles. Unable to follow the severe vows the Brahmins followed, he left them and meditated under a pepal tree finally achieving enlightenment.

He prescribed eight paths to reach liberation. They are as follows; Right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

Buddha is considered to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The life of Buddha was predicted and documented well ahead of his time in the ancient Bhavishya Purana. In the kali age Lord Vishnu made it very easy for everyone to reach Him and thus break the cycles of birth-death & re-birth. As rigorous meditations, rituals are not needed and one can attain Him simply by believing in Him and by chanting His holy names, to challenge people a little he incarnated as Buddha to confuse the masses. Those who would see through the screen of confusion would reach His abode. Thus as Buddha, he taught people atheism!

Buddhism is a branch of Hinduism. There are many schools of philosophy in Sanatana Dharma. The schools that follow the Vedas are Samkhya, Nyaya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsha and Vedanta. Apart from these schools there are other shools of philosophy teaching atheism; they are, Caravaka, Buddhism and Jainism.

According to the ancient religion of Buddhism there is no God! They do not believe in the presence of souls. They believe that there was chaos or nothingness in the beginning from which appeared a giant lotus. Each petal of the lotus developed in to a universe. Now, if there is no God then who created the giant lotus? How can something appear from nothingness? If there is nothing then there is a void; and, if there is not even an atom then how can a lotus appear? We cannot say that God does not exist; we may say that the sub atomic particle is the basis of everything but where did the sub atomic particle come from? Thus we can see a big hole in Buddha’s proposal.

Next he said that there are no souls. Being a Hindu, he believed in the laws of karma. Thus he stated that people’s karmas’ manifested as living entities. When a person dies, the person’s karmas manifest as the next living entity but there is no actual connection between the two entities. The original entity ceases to exist. If this is the case then why should I worry about accumulating bad karmas? If I am going to cease to exist after death I need not worry about accumulating bad karmas! To complicate matters, Buddha taught people that they would go to either hell or heaven to reap the fruits of their karmas. We have to ask ourselves, how can people go to hell and heaven as well as cease to exist?

Buddhists believe in a myriad of Devas, demons etc. as well. The Devas live in seven heavens and the demons in seven hells.

The concept of Nirvana states that a person can reach Nirvana by not desiring for existence. He preached that the desire for existence is the result of ignorance. This is definitely not possible either; now that I know that I should not desire to exist , I am still here! I don’t cease to exist.He allowed women to join monasteries as nuns but they were told that they cannot hope to attain Nirvana unless they take birth as a man. In contrast, the original Vedic tradition offers salvation to everyone including animals, plants & demons. It does not make any distinction between men, women, animals, or plants as all are equal and eligible to obtain salvation.

To be continued.