Morning Explorations: Jainism
One of my favorite all-time songs is Buffy Saint-Marie’s “The Universal Soldier”. I love both Donovan and Buffy’s version and well anyone else who sings this song. The song speaks the truth about religion and war. Here are the opening verses of the song. He’s five foot-two, and he’s six feet-four, He fights with missiles and with spears. He’s all of thirty-one, and he’s only seventeen, Been a soldier for a thousand years. He’a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain, A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew. And he knows he shouldn’t kill, And he knows he always will, Kill you for me my friend and me for you. Now the reason that the “Universal Soldier” popped into my head today was that I was surfing around Wikipedia this morning and I went to the religion portal where I found an article about Jainism. As I started to read, I was fascinated by the tenets of this ancient religion. I knew I had to Find out more about Jainism. Mahavira (599 BCE–527 BCE[1]), also known as Vardhamana is widely regarded as the founder of Jainism, Actually, Mahavira was the twenty-fourth and last tirthankara of Jainism. A tirthankara is a person who has conquered samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth, and can provide a bridge for Jains to follow them from samsara to moksha (liberation). So Mahavira should be regarded as more of a reformer of Jainism. The first of the 24 Tīrthaṅkaras was R̥ṣabha or Ādinātha (Original Lord”), also known as the “Lord of Kesariya”)., About Jainism, from Wikipedia……
