A Jain Muni once told me that not all stories in Jainism are true. Some are written just to entice new followers or keep the existing followers intact or to project an earlier person in a better light.
He outrightly told me that some of the stories regarding Acharya Kundakunda are actually stories. Not the real version of events.
This has made me question everything that has been written in Jainism and all religions over the world. Sometimes I almost come to the conclusion that all concepts about god and xyz things are just false and manmade.
Even though my heart wants to believe that there is god indeed yet my mind creates hurdles for me. Although it happens only sometimes but since faith is the most important ingredient and if I lack faith then itтАЩs all but over. What to do?
It is always known the stories of people in Jainism are there to inspire. Even if some stories are made up, it does not negate Jainism. Core or beating heart of Jainism is тАШRatnatraya, Saat Tatva, Cheh Dravya, Karma sidhant, vastu vyavasthaтАЩ тАж you need to find serious defects and contradictions in above to conclude Jainism is not trueтАж if above can be proven by logic, reason, experience then Jainism is credible and worth followingтАж what are the alternative? тАж creator-god?? тАж this creator-god can be debunked quiet easilyтАж it is only Jainism that pass the test of rationalityтАж
I actually have multiple points of doubts which are as follows in no particular order -
Q1. ItтАЩs said that we used to have advanced technology in the 4th Era like ancient flying machines, palaces made of jewels, humans being able to fly and what not. If all that was possible at that time then it can be easily assumed that writing instruments like pen and paper would also be available. So all the infinite knowledge in the dwadashaang could have been written down and transmitted. But we see that none of it happened. Acharyas had to write on manuscripts with thorns which used to puncture their fingers and blood used to ooze out. All this creates a doubt in my mind that if humans were indeed so advanced then why didnтАЩt they write all of the knowledge back in 4th Era since kevali bhagwan also knew and foretold that knowledge will be lost and Jainism will see its downfall?
Q2. Jain stories talk of Samavsarana. But there is no historical depiction of Samavsarana or the mention of Samavsarana in early Jain scriptures like Kshatkhandagama or Kashaypahud. While other religions like Buddhism will definitely not talk about Samavsarana or appreciate it because that would mean demeaning their own philosophy. My point is that if something so huge and beautiful as the samavsarana did exist then why didnтАЩt no king order its artificial construction and why is anything like that not mentioned in the common books or scriptures of that time. Is it a later addition in the Jain prathamanuyog in order to increase the faith in Jinadev?
Q3. Jain geography closely resembles Hindu geography or we can say vice versa. But what can be seen is that none of them hold true today. We live in a totally different world now which is completely opposite to whatтАЩs written in the Jain geography. There are no 2 moons and no 2 suns as of now. All planets and stars are round and not half cut lemon like in shape. The Earth is an obtuse sphere and definitely not flat. Since Arihant parmesti knows everything hence he also must have known that our universe will dynamically change so he must have told the accurate universal details of the 5th Era as well. I do understand that its possible that the geography might have changed a bit after the last kevali bhagwaan of 4th Era attained moksha. But it could not have changed so much so as to render itself inconsistent with Jain geography. Also I believe that the scriptures on Jain geography are written much later than shri Kashaypahud or shri kshatkhandagam. Why is it so?
Q4. Now I understand that Muni maharaj have satyanuvrat and never lie but then the question arises as to why some topics have differential treatment. Like some muniraaj in the past believed that Tirthankar prakarti bandh happens in the 5th Era. Others believed more conservatively that it cannot happen. ThereтАЩs also this problem as to how many gathas are there in Samaysaar ji. I believe the original had around 439 or something (I maybe wrong) but by the time the manuscript reached to Acharya Amritchandra Ji maharaj, it was reduced only to 424 or 416 gathas. Why or how did this happen? Was it intentionally reduced? If some pages were lost then why didnтАЩt Acharya Amritchandra Ji maharaj write it in his tika that some xyz pages were lost hence IтАЩve limited myself to only 424 or 416? Even now we notice that there are so many sects and sub sects within Jainism itself. People are developing differential interpretation over already differentially interpreted shastras and their tikas. Meaning of various sutras are being molded so that they may suit more towards your own xyz sect point of view. How is all this happening in the religion of truth and rationality?
Q5. Since the oldest scripture is thought to be the most correct therefore can we assume that all the stories and prathamanuyog granths are mostly created keeping some goals in mind and in order to reinforce faith and belief because they all those stories find no mention in early jain scriptural texts. Like Hindus have a whole Ramayana of 24000 verses on the life of Rama whereas we hardly have any scripture of the like on the life of Lord Parasnath or Lord Mahavira who are Tirthankars who attained moksha quite recently and after a lot of time after Lord Rama. The only Parasnath charitra or Mahavira charitra is written after numerous centuries have passed by.
Q6. Archaeologists estimate Krishna to be a living figure around 3102 BC as the circumstantial evidences provided in Hindu granths and other books of that time along with the alignment of stars and position of various planets as well as the geographical location of rivers and certain lands seem to be correctly set at that point of time. Now Hindus always describe Krishna as a normal human being whoтАЩs of average height. We believe vasudeva krishna to be a contemporary at the time of Lord Neminatha who according to our scriptures existed at least 84000 years before Lord Parasvnath which would make the actual time of Krishna around 84900 BC but still being the same height whereas the height according to that time as per Jain scriptures around 98-100 feet and average age being 1000 years. Krishna according to historical estimation lived only for 125 years and 7 months. Logically it seems to me that the life story of a person who lived only 3000 years ago is far easier to record than the life story of someone who lived 84900 years ago. Now I have all belief in Jain scriptures and I know for sure that historians or archaeologists can be wrong but itтАЩs just that I have my doubt on things sometimes maybe due to the fruition of mithyatva.
My point is that all of which that could be written down is still not available with us. Why is it so when everything in 4th Era was very prosperous and the peril of downfall of religion was well known?
My mistake. I meant mahavrat.
My point here being that the oldest scripture mostly offers the actual original knowledge that was recently gained at that point of time so it must be the better representation of Jain knowledge since afterwards the knowledge started dwindling, sectoral divisions happened, people developed individual understandings of religious scriptures etc.
I agree with this. I take it into account that we might have lost a lot of knowledge propounded in the scriptures due to Mughals and Hindus.
My point is -
Writing about a persons life is the most accurate and detailed when he has just attained moksha.
If you write it later then you lose the knowledge of the detailed events of a persons life and have only a few instances to talk about.
All Jain prathamanuyog granths have been written around 7-9th century AD which talk about the life of Adinath bhagwaan or Mahavira bhagwaan or Neminath bhagwaan or Munisuvratnath bhagwaan. Kshayopam had decreased a lot by the time of 7-9th century AD. The time gap is huge. So is it possible for acharyaтАЩs at that time to know all the details truly and correctly as they have written?
My point is that early jain scriptures talk more about Jain knowledge in relation to substances, materials, universe, metaphysics but not about geography, tirthankars etc. and less about how Jainism was formed etc. These stories of prathamanuyog appear much later in Jain texts.
Now I have ultimate belief in Jain metaphysics and its explanation of the universe.
But these some of the creative stories written such as Acharya Kundakunda going to videh and all that raises doubts in my mind if or whether Jainism is also a manmade religion as well.
Not that it makes me lose faith but more that my rationality begets me to question things.
