By Aidan Rankin

Jainism is at once the most ancient of Indic faith traditions and a philosophy for the modern world. As a faith, it is based on the intuition that all forms of life are interconnected and mutually dependent. The universe is perceived to be teeming with life and even the most minuscule life forms, or those that are not presently visible to us, can have cosmic significance. They were aware of the existence of anu, which today’s physicists call sub- atomic particles.

As a philosophy, Jainism is a quest to understand the nature of the universe and the purpose of life itself. It is also an ethical code for us to live in the world and the universe, in which individual responsibility is equated with spiritual progress.

The Jain dharma is therefore a balance of reason and intuition, in which the worlds of the shaman and the scientist are joined. This explains why Albert Einstein once said: “I do not know if there is rebirth or not. But if it is true, then I would like to be born in India as a Jain”. Mahavira, founder of Jainism in its ‘modern’ form, observed that “Non-violence to all living beings is kindness to oneself”. This is an ecological insight profoundly relevant to our own time, as we witness the results of our despoliation and exploitation of the natural world. Such exploitation is based on the idea of human supremacy, that ‘man is the measure of all things’, which Jains have always viewed as a false and superficial doctrine.

At its best, our growing ecological consciousness unites spirituality and science and re-embeds humanity in nature. Mahavira pursued similar aims two and a half millennia ago, and so could safely claim to be the first ‘green’ – although he would be far too modest to do so!

Mahavira (599-527 BCE) was a contemporary of the Buddha who defined Jainism for the modern age. Yet Jains do not view him as a founder, but as the preserver of the original Indic dharma, a path of non-violence, co-operation and individual conscience, uncluttered by considerations of caste or human-made spiritual privileges. As such, these ancient Jain ideals correspond with modern insights about equality and dignity.

The Theosophical Society’s first object - the formation of ‘a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour’ – was also Mahavira’s goal. Theosophist and social reformer Annie Besant noted with approval that Jain communities gave equal importance to the education of women as to that of men. This practice, radical in early twentieth century India, arose from the Jain belief (also radical in its day) that men and women had the same capacities for spiritual growth and so should have the same opportunities to pursue the truth.


Karma is as important to Jainism as to the other Indic paths. It is, as in the Vedic and Buddhist dharmas, the universal law of cause and effect that binds each of us to samsara: the repetitive cycle of birth, death and rebirth. For the Jains, however, karmic bondage (bandha) is also a physical and psychological process by which the jiva or soul becomes enmeshed in material attachments. It is, quite literally, weighed down by karma, which also obscures its perception of the truth. Thus karmic bondage is the spiritual equivalent of walking with a heavy rucksack in a thick mist and trying to find one’s way.

Soul is the most frequent but not the best translation of the word jiva. It is better understood as a life monad, the original life form which arises spontaneously in the universe as a unit of pure consciousness. However each jiva vibrates and this motion automatically attracts karma, so that the samsaric cycle begins. This process reflects the literal meaning of karma as action. Jains also view karma as a substance made up of particles of subtle matter, or really several substances, since there are many varieties of karma which affect the individual in different ways. Our actions – including our thoughts – generate asrava, the inflow of karmic particles which encase the jiva and further involve it in material and transient concerns.

All actions, even the most virtuous, attract karma. It follows that escaping the samsaric cycle is very difficult and can take many lifetimes, during which the jiva incarnates in many forms and conditions. Jains therefore distinguish between auspicious and inauspicious karmas, punya and papa respectively. Punya refer to actions motivated by (for instance) greed, malice or power lust, which set us backwards on our spiritual journey. Papa refer to actions motivated by (for instance) love, generosity or reasoned judgement, which point us in the direction of enlightenment.

There is also a distinction between two types of karmic influence: ghatiya (‘destructive’) and aghatiya (‘non-destructive’). Destructive karmas are the cumulative products of mistaken actions or choices, and so influence us negatively. Non-destructive karmas affect such ‘neutral’ but still crucial factors as our educational attainments and life span. They afford us opportunities as well as pitfalls.

The Jain objective is the reduction and eventually the shedding of karmic influence. This means casting off malevolent desires, such as the desire to dominate the Earth; cultivating positive thoughts, such as love and friendship, and engaging in actions that benefit our fellow creatures. The ultimate goal, however, is non-action, which is achieved, eventually, through abstaining from all violent actions and reducing our ecological footprints so that we no longer pollute the planet or consume what we do not need. Moksha, the release from samsara, is both the highest stage of evolution and the jiva’s return to its origin as a unit of pure consciousness, unencumbered by karma.

One of the most destructive karmas in Jainism is mohaniya, the karma of self-delusion. This refers especially to the delusion that we – or those ‘like us’ – possess a monopoly of truth and that others are ‘either with us or against us’. Jains, like Theosophists, respect all spiritual paths as different journeys towards the same destination.

Aidan Rankin’s book The Jain Path: Ancient Wisdom for the West is published by O Books (www.o- books.com). He is working on a book on ecology and karma.

Register Now

Newsletter Archive

More About Us