This document provides an overview of key concepts in Jain philosophy including: 1. Rebirth, the existence of the soul, and the belief that liberation is achieved through one's own actions. 2. Descriptions of common Jain practices like samayika, pratikraman, vandana, and kayotsarga and their purposes. 3. The emphasis Jain philosophy places on minimizing harm to other living beings through practices related to eating, drinking, and asceticism. 4. The author's acknowledgment that they are not an expert and may have inaccuracies, seeking forgiveness for any mistakes.

1. 5/16/2012
The scientific analysis of life and What
JAIN every Jain must know
Essentials of Jain philosophy - simplified | Dr. T.K. Jain,
jain.tk@gmail.com

2. The scientific analysis
of life and What every
Jain must know
BY :
DR. T.K. JAIN
PARAKH NIWAS
SHIVAKAMU VETERINARY HOSPITAL
ROAD
BIKANER 334001
MOBILE : 9414430763

3. Read the following sections only if you
believe in the following ideas : -- 1. Rebirth
2. Existence of soul 3. Aura sorrounds our
body 4. Our liberation (freedom from the
birth-rebirt cycle) is in our own hand and
through our own actions we can liberate
ourselves 5. Our thoughts and actions have
a direct impact on our existence and
future.
Mahaveer used the local language of his
time so that knowledge can reach to every
person. His sermons were the simplest to
understand and would be accessible to
every creature. It may surprise you that
even animals and birds could understand
his sermons (it is mentioned that animals
also used to attend his sermons).
Today’s Jain saints use all the Jain stotra in
old Prakrit language – which is not
understood by people. The result is that

4. most of the Jains don’t understand what is
Jain religion all about. In one of my
previous colleges, I was asked to recite
Navkar Mahamantra (Namaskar or Navkar
means greetings, and it is the most
important recitation in Jain philosophy).
When I spoke Navkar Mantra’s hindi
version, people were surprised. They said
that they used to listen Navkar
Mahamantra year after year, but for the
first time they understood its meaning.
The meaning of Navkar Mahamantra is as
under : -
I worship all those persons who have
conquered their enemies (enemies here
means attachment, jealousy, hatred, love,
and other such feelings)
I worship all those persons, who have
attained eight Sidhhis (Siddhi means
attaining perfection and self control on

5. things like your speech, your thinking, your
actions).
I worship all those who are imparting true
knowledge to others and who are a source
of ultimate knowledge and wisdom for
others
I worship all those who established religion
in proper format and have established
proper systems for the propagation of
religion (religion here means the path of
attainment of Nirvana / Moksha – which
helps you to reach your soul).
I worship all saints in this world. Saints
here means all those who are devoted to
self realization and follow right path for
self realization
These five worships are very beneficial to
everyone and will remove my ill thoughts
and ill attachments and enable well being
all around for everyone.

6. I wish that every person should understand
Jain philosophy. For those who claim that
they are Jain, it is necessary that they
should understand Jain philosophy and
should try to follow it a bit – even if they
can follow it one percent.
I will start with an incident. A German
Scholar liked Jain religion and its scientific
narrations. He wanted to understand many
practical aspects of Jain religion. He used
to search for visitors from India, and
whenever any person with surname Jain
would come Germany, he would approach
that person to understand the practical
aspects of Jain religion. He would get
disappointed every time. Every person
would reply “I am a Jain by birth, but I
don’t know anything about Jainism and
have never practiced all these.”. It is a
disappointing fact that most of the people

7. who put Jain as surname, don’t understand
the rich heritage that Jain religion carries
and the great contribution it can make to
their life.
Jain religion believes in soul and in re-
birth. There is no God in Jain religion. You
cannot ask for any materialistic possession
from any Jain god / goddess. The ultimate
goal of life is Nirvana (Moksha) and Jain
religion gives you the path to attain that
state.
Most of what Mahaveer said was complied
about 1000 years after his departure by his
followers. This was put as Aagam (the most
important original literature of Jain
philosophy). Most of the knowledge of
Aagam is for Saints (as it is so difficult that
it cannot be practiced by an ordinary
person). Thus Aagam were never meant for
common people. But for the common

8. people, Mahaveer had introduced very
simple practices, which have turned into
rituals over a period of time. It is important
that we must understand their meaning in
our own language and try to practice them
in the way we can understand. The basic
purpose is to follow what Mahaveer said
us to do and not just recite something,
which we cannot understand.
Aavashyak Sutra (necessary steps) contain
important practices, which are followed by
Jain Saints. Most of the Jain followers also
try to adopt these practices in their lives. I
shall mention a few of these here : -
Samayika
Pratikraman
Vandana and Hymn about twenty four
tirthankara
Kayotsarga

9. Pratyakhan
Samayika : it is done for 48 minutes.
Samayika means equanimity. It is a feeling
of equality towards every living being.
Samayika means that we have same
feelings towards every being. We don’t
have love or hatred or jealousy or
repulsion towards any being. Samayika is
done twice, once in the morning – just
after sunrise and once in the evening – just
before sunset. During Samayika, a person
tries to develop calmness and a feeling of
equanimity towards every living being on
the Earth.
Pratikraman: Literally it means to return
back. Thus it is an exercise of repentence
and to return back to our original status. It
is done twice – once just before sunrise
and once just after sunset. It is done for

10. one hour. During Pratikraman, we try to
recall our ill thoughts or ill actions and
repent for them and try to return back to
our pure state of mind. If we have done
something due to our attachment, we try
to recall all those actions and try to purify
our selves from those actions and try to
revert ourselves back to pure state of
mind.
Vandana : Vandana is worship. There is no
provision of seeking any materialistic thing
from the God in Jain philosophy. So the
question arises – why should we do
worship. Worship is done so that we may
have the virtues that the Tirthankars and
Saints had in themselves. Vandana is done
with a purpose to seek the virtues,
wisdom, knowledge and right path.
Worship is just offering respect to our
ideal persons. Worship here doesn’t have

11. to do with seeking materialistic pleasures.
Lord Mahaveer didn’t promote any
temples. However, it is a good practice if a
person goes to temple daily and offers his
worship to Tirthankars. This will enable
him to change faster . However, it would
not be appropriate (in my personal opinion
– you may differ) to offer flowers or other
such things before God or to light a Dipak
(Lord Mahaveer prohibited Jains to use fire
unnecessarily).
Kayotsarga : - Kayotsarga is the most
fundamental in Jain philosophy and it is
being practiced for thousands of years. All
the Jain Tirthankars used this method for
attaining Nirvana. Kayotsarga is different
from Shawasan (deep relaxation).
Kayotsarga has following sequence : -

12. Relax the body and detach yourself from
the body – understand it that your soul is
different from your body.
Relax your breathing
Relax your mind (mind cannot relax unless
body is relaxed and breathing is also
relaxed)
Relax your ideas and ultimately rest in your
soul.
Lord Bahubali did Kayotsarga for one year
standing in a forest (now it seems difficult
to understand how he did it – but at that
time, there were many techniques for
control of body, breathing and one’s aura –
which do not exist today, there are stories
of saints doing Kayotsarga and no wild
animal would even touch them due to
their aura). In fact the earlier methods of
Kayotsarga have been lost with the passage
of time. In today’s time, you can do

13. Kayotsarga as sitting or sleeping posture or
for a short time you may do it standing
also. In ancient times, it used to be done in
standing posture by the Jain monks. This
method is used only among Jain Monks.
Jain philosophy says that calm body will
enable you to have calm breathing. Calm
breathing will enable you to calm down
your mind. Calm mind will enable you to
reach your soul. You may do this for as
much time as convenient to you – start
with a few minutes and increase to one
hour or more. It is believed that we can
first control our body, then we can control
our breathing and then we can control our
mind and our ideas and then we can reach
a status of enlightenment – being with our
soul and ultimately through our will, we
can attain Kevalya Gyan (Moksha), which is
the ultimate state, beyond which we will

14. be free from the cycle of birth and rebirth.
We are in the cycle of birth and rebirth due
to our own attachment and our own
desires, when we free ourselves from our
attachments, we are able to liberate
ourselves (because basically, the soul is
free and it is our own folly that we have
attached ourselves with the materialistic
world and wish to enjoy ourselves in this
world – thus we end up in the chain of
birth and rebirth – which is an endless
process).
Pratyakhyan : it literally means to give up.
In this method a person gives up
everything and tries to detach from the
materialistic world. There are many types
of methods in this. The easiest of all is
Nokarsi – where a person doesn’t eat or
drink anything till 1.5 hours after sunrise.
People often do Upvas (not eating anything

15. for 24 hours, in Chowihar, people don’t
drink also during these 24 hours), similarly
in Bela, people don’t eat for 48 hours and
in Tela, people don’t eat for 72 hours. A
few persons do Athai (doing continuous 8
Upwas – remaining without food for 8 days
continuously). Ayambil is one type of
fasting in which a person eats only once in
a day – that too of only one type of grain –
there are different grains fixed for different
days for that purpose. A few persons do
Maskhaman (fasting for one month) or
Varshitap (fasting for one year – in such a
way that one day there is fast and next day
the person can eat some food and so on)
also – but let us now focus on the most
important thing- the most important thing
is that as a result of this exercise, you
should develop detachment from your
worldly existence. By remaining hungry,

16. you can evolve your will power for
detachment and try to focus on the
ultimate goal of life i.e. liberation or
Moksha. Without this exercise, these
practices will be fruitless. Detachment is a
slow process and therefore you have to try
it again and again. As per Jain philosophy,
attachment is more difficult to get rid of in
comparison to hatred, although both must
be avoided. Jain philosophy lays special
emphasis on what we eat and drink and
how we do it. There are living beings
everywhere including air, fire and water.
Therefore we have to minimize our eating
and drinking. We have to eat less (Jain
philosophy says that we must eat at least
25% less than our regular appetite). We
must eat such food, which causes
minimum sufferings to the living beings.
Therefore non-veg food is prohibited.

17. Similarly, roots are also prohibited. A
person can eat or drink only during day
time – not during night time, because as
per Jain philosophy, during night there are
many living beings, which take birth only
during night and disappear during day time
and therefore eating and drinking during
night is prohibited. Jain philosophy doesn’t
approve of eating honey, or liquor or other
such material, which involves either
sufferings to other living beings or which
have been prepared to alter our
consciousness. Jain philosophy is based on
the basic principle that the ultimate goal of
a being should be liberation and therefore
all the actions and ideas must be evaluated
in that reference. Since liberation of soul is
more important than any thing else, the
practices have been evolved which helps in
liberation. The three most important tools

18. that help us in liberation are : 1.
Knowledge (gyan) 2. Philosophical
understanding and vision (darshan) 3.
Character and our actions (charitra). Jain
saints are supposed to lead a life of
austerity. If they make any mistake or
become consumtion oriented or deviate
from their path, there are stringent self-
punitive actions that thay they have to
perform. Generally they cannot use
vehicle, they cannot use modern gadgets,
and they cannot indulge into modern
luxuries or comforts. They have to keep
minimum basic things with them (which
are prescribed) and they have to walk
barefoot. They travel from one place to
another – they are not allowed to settle or
reside at one place. They have to devote
some time in spreading knowledge among
people and in Jain philosophy, spreading

19. right knowledge (how to get liberation) is a
great task. Aacharang Sutra (the first
Agam) gives detailed description of how a
Jain saint has to lead his / her life.
Jains believe that there is continuous
Ashrav and Nirjara (Ashrav means that we
have attachment and therefore we acquire
Karma Pudgal – which ultimately create
rebirth chain for us) (Nirjara means that
through our efforts, actions, thinking and
self control, we can detach ourselves from
our actions and thus we may get rid of the
Karma which have attached us). There are
detailed methods and descriptions of
Leshya (auro which surrounds us) and how
we can purify our leshya. The most
important aspect is our own willingness – if
we truly desire - we can achieve it –
though continuous efforts.

20. I apologise to all those who believe that I
have written something wrong. I sincerely
admit that I am not an expert in this
subject and whatever I have written is
based on the practices that I have
observed during my childhood in my home
(from my mother) and I haven’t taken any
formal training in this subject. I sincerely
acknowledge the great contribution of all
Jain saints and scholars in their respective
roles and I don’t have even a fraction of
knowledge in comparison to them.
I seek forgiveness from everyone and
forgive everyone for any misinterpretation
or misstatement in the process.