Focus: GS I: History
Why in News?
Mahavir Jayanti which marks the birth of Lord Mahavir was recently celebrated.
About Lord Mahavir:
- Lord Mahavir was the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara of the Jain religion.
- He was born in 599 B.C. as a prince in Bihar, India.
- At the age of 30, he renounced his family and royal life, gave up his material possessions, including clothing, and became a monk.
- He organized his followers into a fourfold order, consisting of monks (Sadhus), nuns (Sadhvis), laymen (Shravaks), and laywomen (Shravikas), who are now known as Jains.
- The ultimate goal of his teachings was to attain complete liberation from the cycle of birth, life, pain, misery, and death, and achieve a permanent state of bliss, known as liberation, nirvana, absolute freedom, or Moksha.
- Lord Mahavir taught that every living being (soul) is in bondage to karmic atoms that accumulate through one’s own good or bad deeds.
- He preached that the attainment of liberation requires a combination of right faith (samyak-darshana), right knowledge (samyak-jnana), and right conduct (samyak-charitra).
