Wardhamana Mahawira

Dzieła

• ok. 400 p.n.e.Acaranga Sutra

  Najstarszy tekst kanonu dżinijskiego, przekazany jako nauka Mahawiry i spisany przez jego wyznawców: postępowanie mnicha, który nie krzywdzi żadnej żywej istoty, aż po najmniejsze stworzenia.

Stanowisko

For Jains Mahavira was not a founder but the twenty-fourth and last “ford-maker” (Tirthankara) of the present age, renewing the teaching of his predecessor Parshva. Every living being has a soul (jiva) – humans and animals, but also plants and even particles of earth and water. Actions draw fine karmic matter into the soul and weigh it down; through non-violence, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity and non-possession, and through austerities, the soul sheds this matter and rises to liberation. Mahavira rejected Vedic sacrifice and a creator God. The doctrine of many-sidedness (anekantavada) was worked out by later Jain philosophers. Through his friend Raychandbhai, Jain ethics also left its mark on Gandhi.

Życie i kontekst

Vardhamana, later called Mahavira (“great hero”), was born into a Kshatriya clan near Vaishali; Buddhist texts know him as Nigantha Nataputta. Jain tradition dates his life 599–527 BCE; historians who follow the later dating of the Buddha, whose elder contemporary he was, place him about a century later. At about thirty he left home, lived some twelve years as an ascetic, attained omniscience (kevala jnana) and taught for about thirty years until his death at Pava.

Dalsze główne dzieła

• Jain canon (Agamas; transmitted orally, written down at Valabhi in the 5th century CE)

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