Jin Sutra: Discourses on Mahavira by Osho

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When renunciation happened spontaneously to Prince Vardhaman, he attained ultimate liberation and became Mahavira one who has conquered himself. The Jin Sutra comprises the teachings of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Jain Tirthankara.

In this first volume of a long series of 62 discourses, Osho discusses two paths: the path of the meditator and the path of the devotee. The Jin Sutra serves as a milestone for any seeker on the path of meditation. Osho states: "Mahavira is a master of meditation, he is solely for the meditator, because he dives deep into the different realms of consciousness."

VAIDEHE VADGAMA and ALVARO RUFFO DELLA SCALETTA have been devotees of Osho for many years.

Vaidehe, of Indian origin, met Osho for the first time in 1969 at his residence in Jabalpur, India, when Osho was known as Acharya Rajneesh. She was initiated into Neo-Sannyas by Osho in 1974 and given the spiritual name Ma Yoga Videh.

Alvaro met Osho in Mumbai in 1974 and was also initiated into Neo-Sannyas with the spiritual name Swami Chidananda.

In the early 1970s, both Vaidehe and Alvaro were personally invited by Osho to live in his Ashram in Pune. From that time until Osho's demise in 1990, they lived with Osho in all his Ashrams/Communes, maintaining a close personal relationship with him and receiving direct guidance regarding their spiritual growth.

Just a few words to introduce this unique series of discourses that Osho gave on Mahavira's Jin Sutra in 1976 in his Ashram in Pune.

When renunciation happened spontaneously to Prince Vardhaman, he attained the ultimate liberation and became Mahavira - one who has conquered himself. The Jin Sutra are the words of Mahavira, the teachings of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Jain Teerthankara.

For Jains, the Jin Sutra of Mahavira is the same as the Bhagavad Gita for the Hindus. According to Jain and Buddhist texts, Mahavira and Buddha are believed to have been contemporaries, as both of them lived twenty-five centuries ago.

In this first volume of a long series of 62 discourses, Osho talks about two paths: the path of the meditator and the path of the devotee. The Jin Sutra is a milestone for any seeker who is on the path of meditation. Osho says: "Mahavira is a master of meditation, he is solely for the meditator, because he dives deep into the different realms of consciousness".

Osho talks about the Jin Sutra of Mahavira in a book titled "Books I have loved". He says: "I have spoken on these sutras in many volumes, but they are, as yet, untranslated into English". Upon reading these words, we were inspired to translate these discourses. He also says that the Jin Sutras certainly contain the highest light man is capable of, and the whole science of conquering oneself".

What is the science of conquering oneself? According to Osho, the science of conquering oneself is based on Mahavira's deep analysis and clear diagnosis of the human condition that apparently has not changed one bit since Mahavira's days. The same anger, the same violence, the same greed that Mahavira talked about in detail, still dominate man's life on this earth even today.

Today the world is enveloped in darkness; everything revolves around violence and wars. Mahavira is the ultimate symbol of non-violence. He is a beacon of light that shows us the way beyond violence. Osho says: "Mahavira is a surgeon. He is less of a philosopher, less of a thinker and more of a physician. Remember this word: physician. He is not happy to sing lullabies, so that you can fall asleep for a while - because you have been spending sleepless nights on end, because you have been restless for lifetimes and you want to fall asleep for a while. No, Mahavira does not want you to fall asleep. He knows that you are already asleep, which is why your life is a web of deceptions and you suffer so much". Mahavira's Jin Sutra has much to contribute to human understanding on many levels.

The Jin Sutra was written originally in Prakrit language, not in Sanskrit. Osho translated the sutras into Hindi and we translated them into English. Osho says about the Prakrit language: "It is a very beautiful language because it has the smell of everything that is simple, unpolished... diamonds just out of the mine - not cut, not polished, but they have a beauty of their own, something wild".

Osho was born in a Jain family and grew up in a Jain cultural environment. Since his childhood, he was surrounded by the fragrance of Mahavira's philosophy. He imbibed the very essence of Mahavira's philosophy, which for him became a stepping stone towards creating his own philosophy, towards a new approach to spirituality and religion. This explains why Osho is such an extraordinary mystic and philosopher, so broad-minded and capable of looking at life from many different perspectives that may look contradictory to us. Osho does not look at things in terms of absolutes, of black and white, of right and wrong, like Aristotle. Rather, he sees existence as a multi-dimensional reality, where opposites are not seen as antagonistic to each other, but complementary, like we see them in nature: day and night, summer and winter, life and death -one cannot exist without the other.

Albert Einstein talked about the theory of relativity in this century, Mahavira talked about the theory or relativity twenty-five centuries ago. Of course Mahavira's conception is philosophical, he was not a scientist, but the foundation is the same. Albert Einstein has scientific evidence, Mahavira has philosophical arguments, but both are trying to say that in existence there is nothing which is absolute, everything is relative.

But Mahavira is also very scientific and pragmatic in his approach to help the seeker on the path to liberation. He guides the seeker from vichar, thought, to meditation and finally to liberation.

Osho also invites us to reflect within ourselves and not take for granted what tradition and society has made us believe, which has become a web of conditionings that overshadows our soul. All the beliefs of culture and tradition have become a thick web of conditionings that hovers around our soul and prevents us to see reality as it is. Or, to say it in Mahavira's words: "Oh, the knot of illusion is so tight!". That thick web of cultural and social conditionings seems to be the knot of illusion that Mahavira talks about, which makes us see things the opposite of what they are and this is what makes us distressed.

Life is suffering. To this undisputable truth that Mahavira emphasizes again and again, Osho adds his approach of devotion to life and celebration of life. Mahavira has been considered the apostle of renunciation, because he left behind his kingdom and all his possessions to go and live by himself alone in the forest. But certainly, living in the forest, Mahavira enjoyed life to its fullest and celebrated life. Certainly, his enjoyment was very different from the excitement we experience when we lose ourselves in the trival pleasures of the world a family, a house, a car, more and more possessions. Roaming around naked in the forest all alone, amidst nature and other living creatures, Mahavira was enjoying the good and the bad weather, the heat and the cold, the changing seasons. He was enjoying life to the fullest. Mahavira went beyond the dicotomies of the human mind - wanting pleasure without pain, wanting life to be always full and never empty.

Mahavira's renunciation was not based on self-coercion. It was not forced; it was a spontaneous event. It was not only a renunciation of material possessions, but also a renunciation of the mind, of the web of the mind. Even though modern man may have everything in life as far as luxuries and possessions are concerned, why is he still miserable? Why does he suffer? Mahavira says that man suffers because of his attractions and aversions, because he does not look at the truths of life, at the root causes of his suffering. The moment we look at our attractions and aversions through the eyes of meditation, according to Osho, renunciation of the mind happens spontaneously, as it happened to Mahavira, and our soul can fly in the sky.

We conclude this short introduction to Osho's discourses on the Jin Sutra with a quote of Osho that goes to the heart of Mahavira's philosophy:

"The whole philosophy of Mahavira revolves around the soul. According to Mahavira, the soul flies in the sky. There is nothing else except the soul. Nothing else except the soul has a place in Mahavira's philosophy. He does not give importance to the world, he does not give importance to the divine. He does not give importance to others. What matters for him is the soul, the inner self".