The Lives of the Jain Elders

Bertrand Russell once said  “Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.” I am always reminded of this quote whenever I am reading about Jainism, perhaps one of the oldest religions continuously practised. It is an extraordinary religion. Unlike other religions, it doesn’t have a concept of a supreme God. There are Gods, but they are born, they die, they are reborn and aren’t as important. In most other religions, you are at the mercy of the Gods, right? In this religion, you aren’t. You are responsible for your own destiny and actions. Extremely blunt, none of this namby pamby giving up your destiny to an all-seeing all-knowing God. No sir, its you mate, you are in control over your destiny, and you must deal with it.

The cosmology of Jainism universe (which interestingly is shaped like a man) is THE most complex and interesting that I have come across in any religion. There are 10’s of millions of hells, and a similar number of heavens. Enlightened souls keep going up and up the cosmological man and reach an umbrella which is over the man. You can fall as well if you violate any of the 3 major tenets of Jainism and these are mindbogglingly difficult. Non-Violence, Non-Absolutism and Ascetism. You must be non -violent towards everything – and they usually are vegetarians for this reason (not even root vegetables as they are sentient and when you dig them out, you may injure or kill insects in the ground. Ascetism is to renounce everything. Non-Absolutism is another completely unique principle – that there IS no ultimate truth or reality and there are multiple Kurosawan Rashomon facets to it. What kind of a religion says this? Only one which is perhaps the most pure and austere?

This book by the 12th century Jain scholar monk Hemacandra, the lives of the Jain Elders, translated by RCC Fynes, is one of the founding books of Jainism. The original is in perhaps one of the most exquisitely written books in Sanskrit and if you can – read it for the sheer job of the Sanskrit Language. Despite the austere and complex nature of the religion, it was transmitted mostly in terms of lessons which were folk tales about memorable characters. People at that time needed these stories to relate their day-to-day experiences to so that they can fix their karmic problem and be released from the cycle of death and rebirth. Some of the stories are a bit fruity but natural for example in Canto 2 between Jambu (one of Mahavir’s followers) and his 8 wives on his wedding night. Fascinating read of an alternative view of India during the 12th century – certainly much different from the majority Hindu view (a non Veda, non Brahman, non caste system, no trinity, no nothing perspective).

You may think that the followers of this religion may not be doing good in business, right? On the contrary, some of the richest Indians now and in the past were / are Jains. Adanis, Seth Hukumchand – the cotton king of India, Anshu Jain of Deutsche Bank and Cantor, Lodhas & Sarabhais, Motilal Oswal, Hasmukhbhai Parekh of HDFC Bank, Jagath Seth and Virji Vora – couple of the richest men during the middle and early modern era in India. Jains, whilst only a few million in number, have shown up in politics, literature, religion, sports, freedom fighters, you name it. Of course, it doesn’t mean that they were all rigorous followers but religion has a very strong influence on business and vice versa. Whether its prescriptions such as usury or exhortations to be good, people are people and they bring their religion, gender, culture all into it business.