The 'TIRTHANKARAS'

Jainism now acknowledges 24 gods or, better called tirthankaras
in the Namokar mahamantra, (1st post of October) we bow to the siddhas in the second line
Well, all the tirthankaras are siddha , though there are many more
Anyways, we had divided time into 2 parts- 'avasarpani' and 'utsarpani'
Every such part has 24 tirthankaras, i.e. there are 24 tirthankaras in every passage from 1st aara to the 6th or from the 6th to the 1st. These are the pure souls who were able to burn all their 'karmas' through samta, tap, jap, etc. And they now rest in 'moksha'.
So here are the 24 tirthankaras which were in this avasarpani kaal:

Note: at present the shasan of 24th tirthankar 'mahaavir' prabhu is going on, i.e. he was the last one.

So, we Jains worship them.

Tirthankaras are Jain gods. They when lived, lived ideally. They kept samta. They gave away worldly happiness (left the 'moh') and concentrated in their souls. They gave "gyaan" to all the common people about things not known to anyone. They had 'keval gyaan' i.e. they knew everything ('antaryami'). More will be elaborated upon the types of 'gyaan'. They were an epitome of kindness, benevolence, mercy. They never used to fight or even get angry, always looked to the other person's happiness, controlled their ambitions, lived a 'saadhu life'. They never took to live like a housefold. So they had to ask for food goin from home to home. Also they used to migrate from one place to another. They are the ideal persons in Jainism. Their 'vaani' used to have a deep effect on all people, and they always used to enourage others to take 'deeksha'.

Here's some interesting stuff. As you know, utsarpani kaal will follow the ongoing the avasarpani kaal. And we all know the great hindu god "Krishna". According to Jainism, he was a 'vasudeva' (more will be told afterwards), and his soul is in hell right now; our tirthankaras have predicted (they know everything, so, it's got to be true) that he will ve a 'tirthankara' in the next utsarpani kaal. Lucky soul, its getting moksha, the next time it comes to earth.

One piece of secret, My real name is the same as our third tirthankara, i.e. I am Sambhav Jain

TIME (classification)

Hi ppl
here's yet another post...
According to Jainism or Jina Dharma, we classify time (kaal) into 2 parts:
1. avsarpani kaal, and
2. utsarpani kaal

So, what happens is:

This world is beginning-less and endless, that is, it has no beginning and will have no end, more interesting posts on this topic will soon be coming

The 'avsarpani' and 'utsarpani' kaal alternate each other. So what are these are avsarpani and utsarpani?

So allow me to show you the detailed classification of time into what we call as 'aare':

1. Sukhad-sukhad (or Sukhma-sukhma) : This is the best. Noone has no worry, never. Everyone who is born in this time is happy, and why not we have the "kalpavriksha" and the "kamadhenu", who fulfill all wishes of all. (Yes! they are a reality)

2. Sukhad (or Sukhma): This is the second best. Almost similar to the first; everyone is happy here too, though not as much as 1st

3. Sukhad-dukhad (or Sukhma-dukhma): You get the sequence, don't you? So this comes next

4. Dukhad-sukhad (or Dukhma-sukhma): This is next

5. Dukhad (or Dukhma): No need to repeat same thing again and again. Here noone is happy, everyone has some worry or the other

6. Dukhad-dukhad (or Dukhma-dukhma): Worst; earth is burning, humans live beneath the earth, get out only at night and eat only non-veg. Vegetation disappears.

NOTE: the 'tirthankaras' only exist in 3rd and 4th aaras

So you might be wondering at present, which aara is going on?

Well, it is the 5th (Dukhad), this imply everyone has some worry or the other. Ask yourself, reader does no worry or anxiety trouble you; if your answer is 'NO', think again, for it is not possible.

And the time moves as follows:

So, the the avsarpani kaal is this:

And the utsarpani kaal is this:

So you get the drift;

when time moves, it moves alternately as avsarpani-utsarpani-avsarpani-utsarpani----

Since the universe is beginning-less, noone can say which was the first 'avsarpani' or the 'utsarpani', not even the tirthankaras

uh! I fight off an urge to disclose more, which I do not wish to pursue at this time.

STAY TUNED!

BASIC SOUL PHILOSOPHY

This is the basic philosophy of Jainism about all living beings. Every living being, be it a human, a sheep, a bacteria, a mango plant, has a ‘soul’. And this soul can take many forms, from a human to a goat or a lion and vice-versa. The body dies but the soul never dies. So. Once you die your soul takes another form in another ‘gati’ and continues to live, and it continues to travel until it reaches its ultimate destination ‘moksha’, the way to which will be clear in the following posts. So, the deeds you do affect your future. If you perform good deeds such as kindness, helping others, etc. your soul (atma) gets good future, your luck improves and your destiny is fair to you and vice-versa . In other words, one has to pay for what one does. And the reward/punishment for good/evil deeds is many times what you did. Actually, the readers migh be confused at this point of time, but it will become clearer with more posts.

Eg. All of us know of ‘Sita’, yes the one in Ramayan. The truth is that in her some previous birth, she had locked a ‘sadhu’ in a room for 14 days, and that’s why, she had to suffer a 14 years exile in her known-to-all birth. So you see, the punishment for 14 days became 14 years, i.e. many times.

There are four ‘gati’s. They are:


Note: tiryanch gati is the animal gati, i.e. the souls of all animals are in tiryanch gati.

So every soul takes the form of one or other gati. We presently are in ‘manushya gati’ but who knows, in future, we may take birth as a snake or land up in ‘narak’. Yes! Hell and heavens exist, and not only that, there are 12 heavens and 7 hells. The one who does evil deeds, or houses evil feelings towards anyone goes to hell (7th being the worst) and vice-versa(12th being the best). So, to stop our soul from suffering, it has to go to ‘moksha’; this is the ultimate destination of every souls, which causes rebirths to stop. So, keep ‘samta’, do good deeds and aim towards moksha. What one achieves in each life is of no consequence.

If you have any queries, please leave them as a comment to this post. Everything told above will be elaborated upon in the following posts.