Did Jainism exist in Satya Yuga?
Question by Rajat Prabhu You mentioned in your lecture on Gaudiya Vaishnava history that Jainism was founded around 5th century BCE or before that sometime before that but Prabhupada says in his purport that Jainism has been existing for a long time that it has existed even in Satyuga from the time of Rishabhdev how do we reconcile this and if Jainism existed since Satyuga then it can take credit of being the only contemporary religion apart from Sanatana Dharma to be present since Satyuga.
Answer ultimately as long as the living entity exists in this world the living entity has some conceptions of life and those conceptions are passed down from generation to generation and sometimes those conceptions gain mainstream currency and at other times these conceptions of the world, of oneself of God they have only minority or inconsequential acceptance so in that sense what to speak of Jainism or Buddhism or even Atheism they have existed throughout history because as long as people have lived they had some conceptions of life so some people have accepted God, some people have rejected God, some people have come up with some philosophies which are half way in between in fact if you look at Vedanta Sutra Vedanta Sutra contains some references apparently to Buddhism but historically speaking Buddhism was 2.5 K 2500 years ago it came up round about whereas Vedanta Sutra was written 5000 years ago according to the traditional understanding so how do our Acharyas address this? Acharyas explain that actually it is not as Buddha was the first person who thought of Buddhism the ideas of Buddhism, the idea of basically Buddhism is nihilistic nihilistic means it rejected the existing traditions at that time and it rejected the existence of God rejected to a large extent the existence of soul and somehow without soul they have the conception of reincarnation although what is it that reincarnates is one of the most perplexing questions for Buddhists for which they don't have any clear answer but nonetheless the point remains that the Vedanta Sutra contains references to Buddhistic thought the Acharyas explain that this refers to Buddhistic thought as it existed even before Buddha and what Buddha did was that particular thought was widely propagated by him and during his times it gained widespread acceptance similarly when I talk about the historical dominance of widespread dominance of Jainism in India that was from a perspective of when it had spread that was in the period from 7th-8th century BC to around 7th-8th century AD this is the time when these two non-Vedic or heterodox religions heterodox means opposite to orthodox that is excepted the Vedic literature as authoritative were called as orthodox religions so Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga, Nivamsa, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, these six philosophies are considered orthodox in the history of Indian philosophy and Jainism, Buddhism and Charvakism these three are considered heterodox so yes it is possible that Jainism has also existed from the time of Kanyuga, from the time of Satyuga and it may not have been called Jainism at that time or it may have been called Jainism we don't have much historical information about the time when Satyuga was there but the important point is that it's not only Jainism that is there, it's various primary strands schools of thought they do exist at different times throughout history and it's only at certain times that they gain widespread currency so now does this mean that Jainism can also claim that it is an eternal religion it is not eternal as I said that it exists from Satyuga just because a religion exists for a very very long time doesn't necessarily prove that it is true just because they say in modern times evolution theory has been accepted for 200 years that doesn't necessarily make it true now we may also sometimes use the argument that the Vedic literature or the old Vedic Sanatana Dharma is the oldest among all the religions that is fine but just the age in itself doesn't prove its authenticity what makes the Vedic literature authentic is not just its antiquity but its divinity its origin in God so Jainism because it doesn't accept God it doesn't consider itself to be revealed by God and therefore it has all the characteristics of any other thought system that humans think about it is fallible, it is finite, it is fragmentary so therefore yes, the point is true that Jainism may have existed in ancient times because various principle schools of thought continue to exist throughout history, sometimes becoming more prominent sometimes less and just because a school of thought has been existing for a long time doesn't make it necessarily valid it is when it is divinely revealed or divinely inspired that it has the capability to answer all the questions that the human mind can come up with and then it can not just answer questions but transform hearts and uplift people and liberate them from material existence that is something which Sanatana Dharma alone can do because it alone contains knowledge about God specific, clear and attractive knowledge about God which charms the human heart and elevates the heart's longing from material things to devotional, spiritual things that is the unique derogatory of the Vedic Dharma.