यह पृष्ठ अभी हिन्दी में उपलब्ध नहीं है — नीचे अंग्रेज़ी संस्करण है। अनुवाद शीघ्र आ रहा है।

About Jainism

Jainism is an Indian tradition centred on non-violence, self-restraint, and the belief that every living thing has a soul capable of liberation. It recognises no creator god: the universe is uncreated and eternal, and each soul is responsible for its own release.

The teaching, one idea at a time

• Ahimsa अहिंसा

  Non-violence, drawn more widely than in any other tradition: not only killing, but harm in thought, speech and inattention, extended to forms of life most systems do not count.

• Anekantavada अनेकान्तवाद

  The doctrine that reality has many aspects and that any single account of it is partial — an epistemology that works as an ethic of argument.

• Karma कर्म

  Not a ledger kept elsewhere but a subtle physical substance that adheres to the soul through action, obscuring qualities the soul already has.

• The three jewels रत्नत्रय

  Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct — held together rather than in sequence, because any one of them alone is incomplete.

• The five vows पंच व्रत

  Ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha — taken absolutely by ascetics and proportionately by householders. The difference is degree, not kind.

• Jiva and ajiva जीव और अजीव

  Everything that exists is either soul or non-soul. Souls are innumerable and individual, and are found in beings most systems do not count as alive.

• The seven tattvas सात तत्त्व

  The whole of the doctrine compressed into seven categories, from soul to liberation. Learning them is where a Jain education traditionally begins.

• The fourteen stages गुणस्थान

  The ladder from complete delusion to liberation, in fourteen stages — including the one the tradition insists most souls fall back down from.

• The universe लोक

  Uncreated, eternal, finite in extent and shaped like a standing figure — with the liberated at the very top and no one governing any of it.

• Digambara and Svetambara दिगंबर और श्वेतांबर

  One teaching, two traditions, separated over monastic possession, the survival of the canon, and whether a woman can attain liberation in that life.

• The mendicant path श्रमण

  Monks and nuns who own almost nothing, walk everywhere, beg their food, and stop for the monsoon — the discipline the lay community is organised around supporting.

Glossary

Every term defined across those pages, in one place. It is derived from them rather than maintained separately — a second list of the same words would be out of date within a month, and the one that got missed would be the one you came for.

Agama आगम

the Svetambara canon, redacted at Valabhi

ajiva अजीव

non-soul

aloka

the infinite empty space beyond it, in which motion is impossible

anuvrata अणुव्रत

the lesser vows, the same five scaled to householder life

aparigraha अपरिग्रह

non-attachment; in practice, a limit set on possessions

arambha

the unavoidable harm of ordinary occupation and household life

asrava आस्रव

the inflow of karmic matter towards the soul

avasarpini अवसर्पिणी

the descending half-cycle of time; we are in its fifth age

bandha बंध

bondage: the binding of karma to the soul

chaturmas चातुर्मास

the four-month rainy-season retreat in one place

dharma / adharma

here the media of motion and of rest, not ethics

Digambara दिगंबर

sky-clad: the tradition whose advanced monks possess nothing

ekendriya

one-sensed beings — earth, water, fire, air and plant bodies

gochari

the alms round, taking a little from many households

gunasthana गुणस्थान

a stage of spiritual quality; there are fourteen

himsa हिंसा

harm or injury — ahimsa is its negation

jayana

careful conduct: doing what must be done with the least harm possible

jiva जीव

soul; that which has consciousness

kashaya कषाय

the passions — anger, pride, deceit, greed — that make karma adhere

kevala jnana केवल ज्ञान

omniscience — the thirteenth stage

loka लोक

the inhabited universe, finite in extent

mahavrata महाव्रत

the great vows, taken by ascetics without qualification

mithyatva मिथ्यात्व

the first stage: wrong belief, or delusion

moksha मोक्ष

liberation: the soul freed of all karma

naya नय

a standpoint; the analysis of the viewpoints a claim can be made from

nikshepa

the analysis of the senses in which a word is being used

nirjara निर्जरा

shedding karma already bound, chiefly through austerity

pudgala पुद्गल

matter, in the sense of that which combines and divides

punya / papa

merit and demerit; counted separately in some enumerations

ratnatraya रत्नत्रय

the three jewels together

sallekhana सल्लेखना

the vow of fasting to death, undertaken only when death is already near

samiti

the five carefulnesses — in walking, speech, alms, handling and disposal

samvara संवर

stopping the inflow

samyak charitra सम्यक् चारित्र

right conduct

samyak darshana सम्यक् दर्शन

right faith: seeing reality as it is

samyak jnana सम्यक् ज्ञान

right knowledge

saptabhangi

the sevenfold predication that syadvada is formalised as

Shatkhandagama

the Scripture in Six Parts, the earliest surviving Digambara text

shramana श्रमण

one who strives; a mendicant

siddha सिद्ध

a liberated soul

siddhashila सिद्धशिला

the place at the summit where liberated souls remain

Svetambara श्वेतांबर

white-clad: the tradition whose mendicants wear white robes

syadvada स्याद्वाद

qualified assertion — marking a claim with the respect in which it holds

tattva तत्त्व

a fundamental category or truth

Written to be read by someone outside the tradition as well as inside it. Where the Digambara and Svetambara traditions differ, the page says so and gives both — see Digambara and Svetambara — and where a claim is what tradition holds rather than what history can evidence, it says that too.