What the Heck is Jainism?

November 5, 2008

We left Visthar this morning around 10:00am to head out for our next field visit.  After a four-hour bus ride we arrived in Shrananabelagola.  I can’t pronounce it so don’t ask me to.  We came here to study Jainism.  As we drove up to the village our leader, Sham, pointed to our challenge.  At 6:30 tomorrow morning we are going to be climbing 670 stairs to the see a temple on top of a hill (Darshan of Bahubali).  I’m a little worried about it.  I know that it’s going to be a difficult climb and I plan to sweat my butt off.  I’m not going to be the only one with this issue, so at least I’m not alone.  I guess that I’m not going to worry about it anymore tonight.  We met with Jagadguru Karmayogi this afternoon (he’s kind of like the pope of Jainism).  When he came into the room several people bowed at his feet.  It was a little weird but I didn’t know anything about Jainism so I can’t judge.  I didn’t know anything about the Jain religion before today.  Jainism is very different from so many religions that I know about.  We were told that’s there are no gods in Jainism, only people.  Since there are no gods in this religion, idols are important.  In fact, they are the most important things.  I haven’t figured out if they pray to these idols or just meditate to them.  Its just really different from what I’m used to.  The center point of the religion is discovering what is the nature of the soul.   A person must look inward to figure this out.  Once you understand the nature of the soul, you are able to understand the entire universe.  The Jains believe that there are three bodies.  The first is the physical body, the second is a collection of molecules (includes actions and emotions), and the third body is the energy body.  The second body is the most important.  This body consists of who you were in the past and who you are in the present.  This is where anger, lust, pride and jealousy are.  It is the goal of Jains to purify this body through meditation.  Once this body is pure, one can know the universe.  During a session I asked about what happens to people if they are not pure and the leader told me that if you cannot be pure just be a good person.  Okay?  Anyway, there is so much that I don’t know about this religion and I don’t think that I will be able to get it all in 2 days.  I have so many questions, that I want to ask, but that’s India for you.  So many questions and so little time.