Ravan the tirthankar !

The ancient Jain scriptures say Ravan will be one of the next 24 Jain tirthankaras or revered souls ...

Legend has it that Ravan and his wife Mandodari were offering puja at the Ashtapad temple,set in a picturesque hilly landscape near Ayodhya,now believed to be under layers of snow. Mandodari was in a state of trance while dancing in devotion as Ravan played the veena.Suddenly,a string of the veena snapped. But Ravan,determined to not let that come in the way of Mandodari's divine dance, plucked out a vein from his thigh to keep the instrument playing. "Ravan was not a bad person. Every time he committed a sin, he would suffer with guilt. Like an injured cockroach flutters in pain," says Masatiji Bhavyaratna, a female Jain monk.

Jain texts say that every soul is capable of self-realisation and can break away from the endless shackles of birth and death. It is also believed that in a time cycle (of thousands of years), a new set of tirthankaras is born. "Each time cycle has two parts: one is called Utsarpini and is marked by increasing happiness, while the other is called Avasarpini marked by decreasing happiness.

Further, each half is divided into six unequal time periods. In the descending period of Avasrpinini, the fourth period is marked by human beings looking for charismatic people to guide them towards happiness. At this point, 24 tirthankaras are born to rejuvenate the path to liberation," says Shugan C Jain, director of the Delhi-headquartered International School for Jain Studies, 

Tirthankaras are born as human beings who subsequently achieve enlightenment and show the world the right path. Their teachings form the Jain cannons. Mahavir is the last of the 24 reigning tirthankaras, and Jain texts say that Ravan will be one of the 24 tirthankaras in the next cycle, expected to come into force in roughly 84,000 human years.

It is believed that Ravan and the 23 other future tirthankaras are still trapped in the cycle of birth and death,some even in hell. "When they receive enlightenment, all the world will know. There will be no illness or drought for miles from the place they are born, all species will be able to hear and understand them, a throne will magically emerge, there will be a shower of flowers and an aura will circle their heads," says Masatiji Bhavyaratna.

"We don't worship Ravan today, because for us, he has still not received enlightenment or shed his bow and arrow." Apart from Ravan, Lord Krishna too is revered as one of the next 24 Jain tirthankars. Pratima Kantilal Shah, a Jain scholar says, that Krishna was to go to the seventh hell, but was pardoned three hells when he performed the guru vandan (circumambulation of folded hands to pay respects) to 18,000 sadhus. In the Jain Ramayan called 'Trishastishalakapurush' and written by a Jain monk called Hemchandra Suriji, Krishna tells the 23rd Tirthankara Lord Arishtanemi:  "I was not so tired from 360 battles as from this homage."

Dr Harshad Sanghrajka,who has helped set up Jainpedia (an online collection of Jain scriptures), says that Lord Krishna in Jain mythology was a cousin of Arishtanemi. "Krishna as a Vasudeva is considered to be one of the 63 special people (Shalaka Purusha) born in each half cycle," he says. "Vasudevas are responsible for eliminating evil and commit a lot of violence in doing so. However their intent is good. Krishna also encouraged his countrymen to join Arishtanemi in taking the vows of Jain asceticism, with a guarantee that he would take full responsibility for their families.

By doing this he qualified to take birth as a tirthankara in the next group of 24." Shrenik,the king of Magadh from 601-552 BC, is believed to be the first of the new tirthankaras. Jain texts state that he followed Mahavir's sermons very closely. "He used to ask a lot of questions to Mahavir about the soul,the cycle of birth and death,meditation and Jainism,'' says Marajsaheb Vimalsagarji,a Jain monk.

Legend has it that one day Shrenik asked Mahavir about his destiny and emancipation, to which Mahavir replied, "Because of the bondage of ayu karma, Shrenik, you will be born in hell first, but because of your bondage with tirthankara-nama-karma, you will become a tirthankara afterwards." Shrenik requested Mahavir to suggest ways of eliminating or reducing his time in hell. Mahavir asked him to do two things, of which Shrenik managed one. But the second - the task of convincing a butcher called Kala to give up killing - he could achieve only partly. Shrenik reduced his stay in hell significantly but did not eliminate it completely.

But all his life, he lived by Mahavir's teachings. Even when Shrenik died and his son placed his body on the pyre, the people of Magadh heard a voice from the dead body that chanted veer veer,' says Marajsaheb Vimalsagarji. Himanshu Prabha Ray, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, believes that the Ramayan and the Mahabharat as epics are complex texts, but each time they are rewritten, they are recast to suit contemporary society.

"I would not like to look at these texts in a watertight manner - as those written by and for the Jains, or the Valimiki version or the one written by Tulsidas for the Hindus," she says. "I would look at the time when each one is written, not just in different parts of India, but across South Asia." A visiting fellow at The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Ray says it is the constant reinvention of the epics that fascinates the people of that time. "The Ramayan and Mahabharat are interestingly put in the context of different religions and regional identities at different times.''

ref : speakingtree.in