Mahavira, The Enlightened one

Jainism is an ancient religion from India that teaches mankind that the way to liberation and bliss is to live a life of harmlessness and renunciation.The central principles of this religion is non-violence and love towards all living beings."ParasparopagrahoJivanam"  which means that the function of souls is to help one another and this is the motto of Jainism. The three main principles of Jainism are ahimsa (non-violence), aparigraha  meaning non-possessiveness and anekantavada (non-absolutism). Followers of Jainism take five main vows: 'ahimsa' meaning non-violence, 'satya'  meaning speaking only truth and never lying,'asteya' meaning not stealing,  'brahmacharya'  meaning chastity, and 'aparigraha' which means non-attachment. Jain monks and nuns observe these vows absolutely whereas householders  observe them within their practical limitations.

 

Lord Mahavira, the enlightened one, also the founder of Jainism. However, Jainism existed even before Lord Mahavira was born. According to , Heinrich Zimmer;Jainism can be traced back as far as third or fourth millennium BC, due to the discovery of a series of great late Stone Age cities in the Indus Valley". According to Jain philosophy, Mahavira is supposed to be the twenty-fourth Tirthankara. A Tirthankara is an enlightened soul who is born as a human being and attains perfection through intense meditation. He is regarded as god and his philosophy becomes the holy book.

Lord Mahavira was born in the royal family of Bihar in 599 B.C at Kundagrama, which was a suburb of the flourishing town of Vaisali, about twenty-seven miles north of Patna. . His father's name was King Siddhartha and mother's name was Queen Trishala (the sister of the Vaisali ruler, whose name has been given in the Jaina texts as Cetaka).According to the Jain belief, Mahavira’s parents were worshippers of Parsva and followers of the Sramanas

He was known by the name of Vardhamana because of the increased prosperity in the kingdom at the time of his birth. Vardhamana means the one who grows. He was called Mahavira, Maha means the great  Vira means hero ( the great hero) because of the acts of bravery he performed during his childhood. Mahavira was also given the title 'Jina' which means the victor or conqueror of inner enemies such as attachment, pride and greed.

In his young age or as a young boy he was very bright and courageous. He once saved his friends from a poisonous snake. He One day, while playing with his friends in his father's garden , saw an elephant, which was mad with fury because 'Musth' ( it is a periodic condition in male elephants, characterized by highly aggressive behavior and accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones. Testosterone levels in an elephant during musth can be as much as 60 times greater than in the same elephant at other times) Mahavira and his friends saw it rushing towards them. His companions( all boys), got shocked and frightened on the sight of the impending danger, they deserted Mahavira and ran away. Without losing a moment, Mahavira made up his mind to face the danger and went towards the elephant. He caught hold of his trunk with his strong hands and mounted on its back at once. Such stories of bravery are abundant.

 Born in the royal family he had all the luxuries of life at his command,yet he led a very simple life. He left all his worldly possessions after his parents expired and became a monk. He gave up all pleasures and left his family for the purpose of attaining enlightenment. Easy to type or speak but the reality is completely different and very difficult. For twelve years, which is a very very long long time, he deeply meditated in order to overcome his desires and cravings. He succeeded in going without food for days,avoided clothes. He suffered all the pain that the human body does like cold, heat, rain, fever, hunger, thirst, inscests bites, thorns on his feet, stones on the way. Yet he never got angry nor harmed another living creature even if it was an insect. A Story too says that, once while meditating, he was bitten by a deadly snake. Still he did not develop any kind of hatred for the snake and kept meditating. After twelve years, he attained divine knowledge and self-realization. His perception about everything was crystal clear and he paved the way for spiritual pursuit for future monks. 

Once he realized the knowledge, he began travelling and preaching. He taught people the way of living life and attaining mokshya, the ultimate goal of all humans. Mokshya means freedom, freedom from misery,pain and cycle of death and rebirth. He walked bare footed and refrained from eating too often........