Jainism - Fun Facts!

Our Karmas determine every moment of joy or pain that we go through in our lives. They determine whether we become human or animal, plant or deva, rich or poor, powerful or powerless, healthy or diseased etc etc in this or future lives. Karmas also determine how, when, where we would attain Moksha. Deciphering Karma is deciphering the true essence of life. 

In my next blogs I would like to talk about Karmas (also the basic science of how your thoughts create everything that is happening in the Universe)  and only 3 simple things anyone should practice in life to attain Moksha. 

But before we do that, let me bring some interesting fun facts for you in this blog.
  1. A fixed number of 608 souls attain Moksha in every 6 months and 8 samay timeframe! This has been happening forever (1 Samay as per Jainism is the smallest unit of time, much smaller than  a nanosecond). You can think that basically population of Siddha Souls are increasing at this rate.
  2. If we have finite number of human beings, finite number of heavenly beings, finite number of hellish being at a given point in time, how do we talk about Infinite Beings in Universe? The infinite beings reside in Nigod form for infinite years. Nigod jeevs are spread all over Universe (infinite souls live in one body, have different Karmas but take birth together and die together). See appendix if you want to know about "What is Nigod jeev"? Imagine, your own soul can be a micro-organism in a Potato in next birth!
  3. Where was my soul at -∞? For common understanding, its fair to assume that journey of all souls (including mine and yours) began as Nigod jeevs. This is the only form which can have span of infinite years, other forms of lives have specified maximum lifespan in one body.
  4. What is the maximum duration of life in one body? As per Jainism, 33 Sagaropama years is the maximum life span any being can have, before taking re-birth. In 7th Hell, the Narkis have  a minimum lifespan of 22 Sagaropama years going upto 33 Sagaropama.
  5. After Ramayana, as per Jainism, Rama attained Moksha, Sita went to 12th heaven. Ravana went to 4th hell, but will become Jain Tirthankar in future. Sita will become his first Gandhar and will also attain Moksha eventually
  6. The day Lord Simandhar Swami attained Keval Gyaan - the absolute knowledge, was also the day Lord Mahavir Swami took birth on our planet Earth (different era but same date)
  7. Shri Krishna would be 12th Tirthankar of next Chaubis on our planet earth!
  8. Karna of Mahabharata and Devaki (Shri Krishna's mother) would also be our 20th and 11th Tirthankar on Earth in the coming Chaubisi!
  9. You would be thrilled to know that just like 608 souls goto Moksha in 6 months, 8 Samay; exactly same number of Souls move out of Nitya Nigoda life form in same timeframe
  10. What is Nitya Nigod then? Resident of Nitya Nigod are those who have never ever come out of Nigod life form, they have never ever changed to other life forms from the beginning of the time or -∞
  11. The first four current living tirthankars are - Lord Simandhar Swami, Yugmandhar Swami, Bahu Swami, Subahu Swami. Of the various planets where Tirthankars are present walking in human form currently, these 4 are closest to us. I would personally lay significant emphasis on deep devotional worship of Lord Simanshar Swami, a "must-do" for anyone reading this.
  12. When was Lord Simandhar Swami born? In the time between our 17th Tirthankar Lord Kunthunath and 18th Tirthankar Lord Arahnath. He is still walking in human form as we speak and helping millions attain Moksha!


Appendix:

What is Nigod? It is the lowest state of existence of any soul in the Universe. Nigods are micro-organisms living in one sensed subtle plants. Infinite number of Nigod jeevs live in one body, they have their different karmas, but take birth and die together. Nigod jeevs have a very short lifespan, but the Nitya Nigod jeevs have been living in that form for infinite years.

Nigod Jeevs are of 2 types: Nitya Nigod (have never got out of Nigod life form ever) and Itar Nigod (who moved out of Nitya Nigod, spent several years in other life forms but went back to become Nigod jeevs)

Sagaropama - pls refer to Appendix of the Cosmology Blog Part 1



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time Gap Between Tirthankars and More

Image
The ages of Tirthankars are well documented and widely known, however the exact time gap between two Tirthankars is not so commonly known and found in texts. If we know the exact time gap between births of Tirthankars we can decipher, approximate timeframe of other historic figures and gasp at the enormity of the time scale! Below is a compact list*, with cheat-sheet to decode ages in numbers of years. From above table we see that Lord Mahaveer Swami was born 278 years after Lord Parshvanath's birth. Total Gap between Birth of Rishabh Bhagwan and Mahaveer Bhagwan therefore is 4.10145E+73 (or 4.10145 x 10^73 yrs). Just look at the gap between Rishabh Bhagwan and Ajithnath Bhagwan's birth, our planet had no Tirthankars even in 4th Ara for innumerous numbers of years in between :). There were so many phases in between when Jain way of life almost became non-existent too.  How Big was 4th Ara? Let us do some quick calculation. We know 1) Rishabhdev Bhagwan attained Moksha with 3 ye...
Read more

Jainism and Science

Image
Jainism not only tells us principles and way of life, but also gives very detailed explanations of each and every phenomenon happening around us. Jainism doesnt believe in a universe created by God, but in a universe driven by fundamental laws, which forms the basis of modern science as well. Here in this blog, I put a few things that give us proof of vast plethora of knowledge that exists in Jainism, how science is unfolding and re-discovering facts which have been known and established doctrines in Jainism for millennials altogether. Also the moment we use our knowledge of Jain Scriptures, almost all so called mysteries of modern world like how were Pyramids made, to Heights of Dinosaurs will be solved in an instant. We also discuss challenges faced by scientists and why the profound depths of Jainism's wisdom may forever elude complete comprehension. Time Cycle, Reducing Human and Animal Heights and Other Bodily Characteristics The time cycle in Jainism talks about different ar...
Read more

Decipher The Unknown via Jainism

Image
Modern science has indeed walked a long way. But I fear mankind may have not even discovered a grain on a sandy beach yet! Today, its hard to believe that when Albert Einstein was working on the Theory of Relativity, science wasn't even aware of life in plants. It was as late as 1901, that Jagadish Chandra Bose proved plants are like any other life form - a concept known to Jainism since time immortal ! Similarly, when we look at our universe, our scientists still grapple with questions like what is the size of our universe ? Is it expanding? If it all started with a Big Bang, will there be a Big Crunch re-collapsing us all? The observable universe alone (which is a very miniscule part of the entire universe) is 93 billion light years in diameter! Jain Cosmology explains all the hidden wonders to us, the exact size, dimensions and shape of the universe. Yes, as per Jainism, the universe is indeed finite and has a well defined shape (neither is it circular nor is it flat)! I will...
Read more

The Human Abode - Jain Cosmology Part 2

Image
Jain cosmology tells us about " 15 special planets" . Human beings living on only these planets can attain salvation or moksha. Our Earth is one of them. However there are time cycles on 10 of these 15 planets and only during special phases of that time cycle can salvation be attained. At this juncture we have moved into 5th part of the time cycle on Earth and salvation or direct moksha from here is not possible. Roughly after another 81,000 years humans can again start achieving Moksha from our planet Earth! We will dig in this more when we talk about time cycles. (Note: There exists a path to attain Moksha for our souls earlier than this too, so keep working on principles of Ahimsa, we will discuss more in later blogs on this) In this blog, we will discuss Madhya Lok (middle part of entire universe) , planets with human life and more. Let me start with our planet and go in reverse order. We live on Earth (or the Bharat Kshetra as it is called as per Jain Aagams), which is...
Read more

Heaven & Beyond! Jain Cosmology - Part 1

Image
When we look through the prism of Jainism, it is very easy to comprehend the entire universe, living beings, non living beings, life cycles, time cycles and the journey of every soul. Given the complexity and diversity of the topic, I will be splitting the topic in four blogs, describing abode of humans, demi-Gods (Heavenly beings), Narkis (Hellish beings) and the overall shape/size of entire universe each. The entire universe as per Jainism, is split into 3 parts: * Urdhva Loka (the upper world) - abode of the demi-Gods or Heavenly beings * Madhya Loka (the middle world) - where humans/triyanch reside * Adho Loka (the lower world) - the world of the hellish beings The goal of every soul is to reach the 45 lakh yojan long Siddh Shila, where infinite Siddh Gods are residing. But in the series of Jain Cosmology blogs, this one talks about Devtas (or Heavenly beings, or Demi-Gods), Devloka - their abode (or Heaven as it is known), their lifecycles and characteristics. Please dont confuse ...
Read more

The Science of Moksha - Soul - Karmas and Our Mind

Our own sub-conscious mind is the storehouse of all the karmas we have done in multiple lives. Think of it as a recorder which is recording every moment of our lives; all actions and thoughts - good, bad or evil. We may or may not reveal it to the world, but our subconscious mind always knows the honest thoughts and feelings we create and carry for other beings. This is the process by which we create karmic atoms, which are stored in our own subconscious mind. The subconscious mind can also be called the soul! The Science of Mind and Soul There is a very subtle relationship between our conscious mind and the soul (sub-conscious mind). The sub-conscious mind is the guiding light, supremely powerful, the Super Computer, the almighty Himself . Our soul and the God or the universe as I call it, are all in sync. The purest of the thoughts we create are the thoughts of the God and the Universe will manifest them for us . While I am still studying the science of all mantras in depth, but for...
Read more

Soul (Aatma) Supreme (Parmaatma) and The Forms and Aim of Life

Image
There are infinite living beings in this universe, present in 8.4 million different life forms. Each one has a soul. During the cycle of thousands of births and re-births every soul by virtue of various interactions and thoughts keeps adding karmic bonds . The 'pure atoms' of soul are deeply entrenched by interaction with karmic atoms - forming layers of  'not so pure' molecules engulfing the soul (aatma).  Original nature of all souls is that of peace, happiness and eternal bliss.  Who is Parmaatma? The ultimate aim of all souls is to 1) Not create new karmic bonds and 2) Shed away all the old karmic bonds created over several births. Once the Soul gets rids of all these karmas and attains the supreme knowledge, it attains salvation and becomes Parmaatma (or the Supreme aka God as some say)! So all of us are capable of being Parmaatma ourselves and essence of Jainism is to follow such path and help others in the journey too. What is Karma? How do we shed it? Are ther...
Read more

Jain Samvaad - Prashnavali - Jina Idol

This is a new series in Jain Samvaad blogs, where I will try best to answer some simple questions of curious minds: Q. If God is omnipresent, why go to temple?  Indeed, one can achieve Moksha just by meditating on one's own soul! And there are several other paths which can lead our soul to Moksha. But there is special importance of worshiping a Jina Idol. Infact when done with full faith and devotion it can lead to significant reduction in misery, sorrow, karmic bonds and take our souls long way on the path of Niravana.  Such is the importance of Jina Idol worship, that even the Lord(s) of Heaven(s) (Indras) regularly worship Jina Idol, despite the fact that they can directly go and worship humanly form of Present Tirthankar Bhagwan (Lord Simandhar Swami for example in today's age) residing at Mahavideh Kshetra. So why? The truth is that the Jina Idol you see at temples is just not a statue made of stone. It isint. Only  a very powerful spiritual guru, can initiate and i...
Read more

Astrology - Spirituality - And The Karmic Science

Image
A question arises, if everything is known, planned and pre-decided, as per Astrology then isint it a conflict with entire science of spirituality? Why aim to improve, work or do penance if the fruits of life are already known? Is Astrology at loggerheads with Spirituality?  In reality, both the sciences, Astrology & Spirituality, are consistent with each other. A deeper understanding of the concepts of karmic theory and meta-physical world will make us arrive at the conclusion that both sciences are fully correct sciences and in conjunction with each other. Before we delve into above question, we must first understand the Karmic Theory a little deeper. Karmic particles are NOT abstract particles . They are  massless *  particles, real entities present in the cosmos. With the relatively recent discovery by modern scienetist of Gauge Boson (the gluons and the protons), it is no more difficult to imagine a massless particle. Infact its now very likely that our Universe i...
Read more

The Cosmic Wheel

Image
On our planet Earth (called Bharat Kshetra in Jainism) life has existed from -∞ to + ∞ (aka forever). We have had infinite time cycles here, each cycle being divided into 6 parts. Each part or sub-division is called Ara . Every Ara has unique characteristics, in terms of duration, age of people, height of people, their happiness, resources, habits, food, religion, lifestyle etc We are currently in the 5th Ara of the descending part of current time cycle. The 4th Ara ended approximately 3 years and 8 months after Lord Mahavira's Nirvana. Other than Lord Adinatha, all other Tirthankars lived in the 4th Ara (Lord Rishabhdev was born towards the end of 3rd Ara).  Am depicting a chart below to comprehend the same. Time cycle runs from 1st Ara to 6th Ara (currently we are in 5th Ara of Avasaripini Kaal or the descending cycle) and then from 6th back to 1st Ara in reverse order.  The six parts of time cycle are depicted above. We are roughly 2,543 years into the 5th Ara of Avasa...
Read more