भगवान महावीर की धर्म-क्रांति

Summary

The text discusses Mahavira's non-violent revolution in religion, where he opposed sectarian divisions and freed religion from imposed boundaries. He declared that religion is the sacred practice that purifies the soul, occurring not in villages or forests but within the inner self. He emphasized using reason and right knowledge to determine religious practices. His revolutionary idea that the soul itself is Brahman led him to assert that salvation comes not from worshipping external imagined powers but from realizing and refining the inner self. Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of the current descending half of the Jain cosmic time cycle, provided a new direction to the skeptical society of his era. He preached the five great vows instead of the fourfold restraint of the twenty-third Tirthankara Parshvanatha, achieving self-conquest through his own effort and character. While Vedic sages established cooperative social life and Upanishadic thinkers awakened universal consciousness, Mahavira and Gautam Buddha brought religious revolutions. Buddha advised testing his words before acceptance, while Mahavira urged self-examination rather than imitation. The text emphasizes that religion is not display, custom, or hatred, but the development of human qualities and universal consciousness. It cannot be fragmented. Those who hide spiritual truth under religion's guise promote hypocrisy. Mahavira's revolution attacked irreligion and communalism, establishing religion's true form. He stated that reading Vedas alone cannot bring liberation; one cannot know the soul if even an atom of attachment or aversion remains in the heart. He taught knowing the soul through the soul itself. The text explains that each substance is independent, with its own qualities and modes. Mahavira established the soul's freedom on this foundation. Every living being has consciousness; bondage and liberation lie within. The soul is bound by its own actions and can free itself. Liberation means becoming the supreme soul, not merging into it. All souls are equal in nature, though differences exist in their developmental stages. Through right faith, knowledge, and conduct, every being can progress. Worship of Tirthankaras aims not at obtaining