Jainism - Atom

The History of Jainism is the history of a religion founded in ancient India. Jains trace their history through twenty- four THIRTHANKARA. In the present time cycle Rishabhanatha as the first Tirthankara. The last two Tirthankara, the 23rd Tirthankara Parshvanatha and the 24th Tirthankar  Mahaveer are considered historical figures. The history says that Mahaveer was the elder contemporary of the Buddha and the 22nd Tirthankara Neminth lived about 85,000 years ago and was the cousin of Hindu god Krishna.

                   The origins of Jainism are obscure. The Jains claim their religion is eternal and considered Rishabhanatha the founder in the present time-cycle, someone who lived for 8,400,000 Purva years.

                      There are two main sects of Jainism namely the Digambara's and the Shwethambara's. Jainism co-existed with Buddhism and Hinduism in ancient and medieval India. Many of its historic temples were built near the Buddhist and Hindu temples in 1st millennium. After the 12th century, the temples, pilgrimage and naked ascetic tradition of Jainism suffered persecution during the Muslim rule, with the exception of Akbar whose religious tolerance and support for Jainism led to a temporary ban on the animal killing during the Jain religious festival of Paryusan. so the Jain Community says that "Ahimsa Paramo Dharmastutho Jaya" means the Jain community follows non-injury who doesn't want to harm any animals. This is all about What the Jain community is form history.

                                    We will see the history and biography of all the 24 Thirthankara's and the meaning of the Jain symbol in the coming posts as well as the unknown or the things of the invisible truth that Jain people are following and about the Jain holy places, temples and their pooja vidhana's in coming posts.

The Jain Symbol is a congregation of various symbols, each having a deeper meaning. This symbol was adopted by all sects of Jainism while commemorating the 2500th anniversary of the nirvana of Lord Mahaveer.

                  The outline of the symbol is defined as the universe (Lok) The lower part of the symbol represents the seven hells (Naraki). The middle part of the universe contains the earth and the planets (Manushyalok). The upper part contains the heavenly abodes (Devalok) of all the celestial beings and abode of the Siddhas (Siddhashila). Jain believe that this universe was neither created by anyone nor can it be destroyed by anyone. It may change its form, but otherwise, it has always been and will always be here.

                 The raised hand means stop. The word in the center of the wheel is "Ahimsa". Ahimsa means non-violence. Between these two, they remind us to stop for a minute and think twice before doing anything. This gives us a chance to scrutinize our activities to be sure that they will not hurt supposed to ask or encourage others to take part in any harmful activity. The wheel in the hand shows that if we are not careful and ignore these warnings and carry on violent activities, then just as the wheel goes round and round, we will go round and round through the cycle of birth and death.