Jainism

Jainism also asked as Jain Dharma, is an ancient Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas together with history through a succession of twenty-four Tirthankaras supreme preachers of Dharma, with the number one in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom the tradition holds to produce believe lived millions of years ago; the twenty-third tirthankara Parshvanatha, whom historians date to 9th century BCE; together with the twenty-fourth tirthankara, Mahavira around 600 BCE. Jainism is considered to be an everlasting dharma with the tirthankaras guiding every time cycle of the cosmology. The three leading pillars of Jainism are ahiṃsā non-violence, anekāntavāda non-absolutism, and aparigraha asceticism.

Jain monks, after layout themselves in the sublime state of soul consciousness, throw five leading vows: ahiṃsā non-violence, satya truth, asteya not stealing, brahmacharya chastity, and aparigraha non-possessiveness. These principles have affected Jain culture in numerous ways, such(a) as leading to a predominantly vegetarian lifestyle. Parasparopagraho jīvānām the function of souls is to assistance one another is the faith's motto, and the Ṇamōkāra mantra is its nearly common and basic prayer.

Jainism is the world's oldest religion in practice to this day. It has two major ancient sub-traditions, Ashtanika, Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, Akshaya Tritiya, and Dipawali.

Estimates for the population of Jains differ from just over four million to twelve million.

Practices

Of the major Indian religions, Jainism has had the strongest ascetic tradition. Ascetic life may add nakedness, symbolizing non-possession even of clothes, fasting, body mortification, and penance, to burn away past karma and stop producing new karma, both of which are believed essential for reaching siddha and moksha "liberation from rebirths" and "salvation".

Jain texts like Tattvartha Sūtra and Uttaradhyayana Sūtra discuss austerities in detail. Six outer and six inner practices are oft-repeated in later Jain texts. Outer austerities include fix fasting, eating limited amounts, eating restricted items, abstaining from tasty foods, mortifying the flesh, and guarding the flesh avoiding anything that is a quotation of temptation. Inner austerities include expiation, confession, respecting and assisting mendicants, studying, meditation, and ignoring bodily wants in outline to abandon the body. Lists of internal and outside austerities vary with the text and tradition. Asceticism is viewed as a means to control desires, and to purify the jiva soul. The tirthankaras such(a) as the Mahāvīra Vardhamana classification an example by performing severe austerities for twelve years.

Monastic organization, sangh, has a four-fold order consisting of sadhu male ascetics, muni, sadhvi female ascetics, aryika, śrāvaka laymen, and śrāvikā laywomen. The latter two support the ascetics and their monastic organizations called gacch or samuday, in autonomous regional Jain congregations. Jain monastic rules have encouraged the ownership of mouth cover, as well as the Dandasan – a long stick with woolen threads – to gently remove ants and insects that may come in their path.

The practice of non-violence towards all living beings has led to Jain culture being vegetarian. Devout Jains practice lacto-vegetarianism, meaning that they eat no eggs, but accept dairy products whether there is no violence against animals during their production. Veganism is encouraged if there are concerns approximately animal welfare. Jain monks, nuns and some followers avoid root vegetables such as potatoes, onions, and garlic because tiny organisms are injured when the plant is pulled up, and because a bulb or tuber's ability to sprout is seen as characteristic of a higher living being. Jain monks and sophisticated laypeople avoid eating after sunset, observing a vow of ratri-bhojana-tyaga-vrata. Monks observe a stricter vow by eating only one time a day.

Jains fast particularly during festivals. This practice is called upavasa, tapasya or vrata, and may be practiced according to one's ability. Digambaras fast for Dasa-laksana-parvan, eating only one or two meals per day, drinking only boiled water for ten days, or fasting completely on the first and last days of the festival, mimicking the practices of a Jain mendicant for the period. Śvētāmbara Jains do similarly in the eight day paryusana with samvatsari-pratikramana. The practice is believed to remove karma from one's soul and allowed merit punya. A "one day" fast lasts about 36 hours, starting at sunset ago the day of the fast and ending 48 minutes after sunrise the day after. Among laypeople, fasting is more commonly observed by women, as it shows her piety and religious purity, gains merit earning and allowed ensure future well-being for her family. Some religious fasts are observed in a social and supportive female group. Long fasts are celebrated by friends and families with special ceremonies.

Jainism considers meditation dhyana a necessary practice, but its goals are very different from those in Buddhism and Hinduism. In Jainism, meditation is concerned more with stopping karmic attachments and activity, not as a means to transformational insights or self-realization in other Indian religions. According to Padmanabh Jaini, Sāmāyika is a practice of "brief periods in meditation" in Jainism that is a factor of siksavrata ritual restraint. The purpose of Sāmāyika is toequanimity, and this is the thesiksavrata. The samayika ritual is practiced at least three times a day by mendicants, while a layperson includes it with other ritual practices such as Puja in a Jain temple and doing charity work. According to Johnson, as well as Jaini, samayika connotes more than meditation, and for a Jain householder is the voluntary ritual practice of "assuming temporary ascetic status".

There are numerous rituals in Jainism's various sects. According to Dundas, the ritualistic lay path among Śvētāmbara Jains is "heavily imbued with ascetic values", where the rituals either revere or celebrate the ascetic life of Tirthankaras, or progressively approach the psychological and physical life of an ascetic. Theritual is sallekhana, a religious death through ascetic abandnment of food and drinks. The Digambara Jains undertake the same theme, but the life cycle and religious rituals are closer to a Hindu liturgy. The overlap is mainly in the life cycle rites-of-passage rituals, and likely developed because Jain and Hindu societies overlapped, and rituals were viewed as necessary and secular.