Download Jainism and Sikhism

Chapter 5
 Tirthankaras
 Ford Finders – Stream Crossers
 Revered but not worshiped
 Parshva – the first
 Born before the Buddha in time of Vedas
 Mahavira – the last
 Focus of current belief and practices
 Lived around same time as the Buddha
 Mahavira
 24th and Last Tirthankara (599 BCE)
 Father was 2nd caste
 Mother dreamed of his greatness
 Renounced the world around age 30
 Took 12 years to reach Nirvana
 Became a Jina (conquerer)
 Lives in ishatpragbhara beyond life and death
 Sky Clad – nudity (for men only)
 “Conservative”
 Renounce the world
 Mahavira was unmarried
 Mahavira (Jina)
 Omniscient trance
 Under a white umbrella
 Lotus position
 Making a divine sound
 White clad
 Women included
 Liberal
 Mahavira
 Born after embryo transfer from Brahmins
 Ate sparingly and taught not to harm life
 Believed he was married with a child
 Continued to teach for 30 years and gain followers
 Translations of the heavenly sounds of Mahavira
 Purvas
 No longer exist but thought to go back to the First
Tirthankara (Parshva)
 Angas
 Originate with 24th Tirthankara (Mahavira)
 Acaranga
 Life and basic teachings of Mahavira
 Rules for monks and nuns
 Injury to animals is a sin
 Laws of Karma
 Angabahya
 Loka
 Universe where sentient
beings are reborn
 Triloka
 Ishatpragbhara –
where liberated souls
live
 Middle World – where
humans live
 Hells
 Jiva Soul, eternal
consciousness, purity
 Ajiva (nonjiva) bound
to Jiva by Karma which
is material
 Important to Jains
 Ahimsa - Non violence toward all living things
 Self-purification
 Chastity
 Poverty
 Identification with all living beings
 Truthfulness
 Not Stealing
 Non-attachment
 Death by fasting (sallekhana)
 Karma – comes with selfish desires
 Difference from Hinduism
 Jains do not follow Vedas
 Jains do not worship multiple Hindu deities
 Karma is a physical substance
 Difference from Buddhism
 Jiva (soul) is reincarnated until Moksha is achieved
 Bodily denial of food and clothing
 Non attachment practiced by fasting (Aparigraph)
 Release only comes after commitment to faith
 Worship
 Approach those who reached Jina as if still living
 Seeking the heavenly sound of inspiration
 Must wash and enter temple barefooted-purity rituals
 Pilgrimages
 Fasting
 Alms
 Absolute and World View
 No creator and no beginning to the universe
 Basic doctrines are absolute
 Everything else is relative
 Salvation is through one’s own effort
 All life is sacred
 Causing pain snares humans in suffering
 Soul is superior to the physical world
 Watch out for bugs
 24 million Sikhs in the world
 21 million in India, most in Punjab
 ¼ million in the United States
 Monotheistic
 Nanak
 From Punjab 1469 CE
 Rejected Hindu coming of age ritual
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(upanayana)
Vision of God followed spiritual crisis at age 30
Appointed by God as Supreme Guru
Denied Qu’ran and the Vedas
Became wandering evangelist in India
Disciples called Sikhs
 Nanak’s Teachings
 God is the original Guru
 Humans souls want communion with God
 Loving self >God causes suffering
 God lives in human hearts
 5 Stages of progress
 Piety
 Knowledge
 Humility
 Spirit
 Truth
 Gobind (1666-1708)
 10th and last Guru following Nanak
 Khalsa (lions) were his first 5 followers and models
 Uncut hair, comb, short pants, steel bracelet, sword
 Baptized in water
 Worship the One God
 Bathe in cold water each dawn and pray
 No tobacco or alcohol
 No molestation of Muslim women
 No Caste
 Adi Granth
 Scriptures
 Considered the “perpetual guru”
 Central text for devotion and ritual
 Dastar
 Turban worn by Sikh men
 Towering fortress
 Kirpan
 Ceremonial sword
 Worship in Gudwara
 Shoes removed
 Heads covered
 Adi Granth (scripture) central
 Eat from common source of offered sweets
 Bhais – spiritual brothers in white
 God is personally present in the human heart
 God and the way to God are made known in the
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Word
Most humans love possessions more than God
Salvation through baptism, meditation, charity,
and hard work
Mystical union of soul with God is ultimate goal
Sikhs not evangelical
Desire Punjab to be their own state
Sikhs will fight to defend but are not aggressive