Mahavira and Jainism

The Jain religion began a little over two and a half thousand years ago, about the same time as Buddhism sprang up. Jainism is the religion which followed from the teachings of the great enlightened master Mahavira.

Mahavira’s teachings were plentiful but the aspect of Jainism which I like most, and which I will focus on here, is its reverence for all forms of life. All animals are treated as equally important. Even the tiniest insect is cared for with the same diligence as a fellow human being. So some Jainas will sweep a path, carefully, delicately, whilst they walk to try to avoid stepping by accident on any insects. Some will wear a face mask not to cut down the pollution that they breathe but to stop them from inadvertently breathing in a tiny insect. These are a couple of the ways that Jainas try not to kill or harm any living being.

This is such a beautiful teaching – that all of life is important, all of life is divine, we are all spiritual beings. There is no greater and lesser, none of us is more important or less important. This may seem a little quirky or unimportant even but it is of the greatest importance. For as soon as we begin to regard ourselves as superior beings, more important than the other animals, we create a great gulf between ourself and the rest of the living world. That sense of separation is our own excommunication from nature, brought about by our own mistaken belief that we are somehow fundamentally better than other animals, or more important. It is not so.

The Jain religion, more than any other, recognises this great equality amongst all beings. Within the Jain religion there is no question, there is no space to feel superior to another animal. Without such feelings of superiority we can feel our connectedness to those other animals and plants, to the rest of life. This provides a basis for us to rediscover the fact that we are not separate, that we are part of existence, an integral part – not more important, nor less, an equal part along with all the other beings in whatever form. This is the great contribution of the Jain religion, to remind us that all life is divine, that all life is to be cared for as we would care for our closest loved ones.