HereNow4U provides an extract from Transmutation Of Personality Through Preksha Meditation that discusses the material nature of the concept of leśyā or soul colour. The excerpt takes the form of an interview with Ācārya Tulsi, the eighth leader of the Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin sect. Although he uses scripture to explain leśyās, Ācārya Tulsi considers the concept partly in the context of the 'insight meditation' – prekṣā dhyāna – of the Śvetāmbara Terāpanthins, which may also be practised by those who do not follow this sect.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=cd4465

The Jainsite website provides information about the temple to the ninth Jina in Kakandi. Called both Puṣpadanta and Suvidhi, the Jina was born in Kakandi and has been associated with the area since at least the late medieval period.

https://jainsite.com/jain-tirth/kakandi-tirth/

Jains commemorate the final liberation of the 24th Jina, Mahāvīra, in the festival of Dīvālī in late September or October. At Dīvālī, as in other festivals, statues and temples are lavishly decorated, as shown in this 2007 Flickr photograph of the Katraj temple in Pune, Maharashtra. Lights are festooned everywhere during the 'Festival of Lights', with both electric lighting and traditional clay lamps – dīpas – used. Examples of the ancient auspicious symbol of the svastika, with four dots representing the Jain community or the four states of existence, are clearly seen either side of the temple entrance.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darvekar/1978597664/in/set-72157603105954957/

Some of the temples at Mukta-giri are built either side of a river, in a valley. The white temples number 52 and are a popular pilgrimage site for Digambara Jains. Tourists are drawn by the natural beauty of the location, as captured in 2009 by this photograph on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48658348@N07/4557671628/

Information about the temples dedicated to Candraprabha in Chandrapuri in Uttar Pradesh is available on Jinalaya.com. The Śvetāmbara temple was built in 1832 while the Digambara temple was completed in 1856. The town is closely associated with the eighth Jina, who experienced four of his five auspicious events – pañca-kalyāṇaka – there.

http://www.jinalaya.com/india/chandrapuri.htm

The Digambara temples at Mukta-giri attract many pilgrims and are built in several groups each comprising eight or so shrines very close together. The Mukta-giri temples are found in the Satpura mountain range in central India. This 2011 photo on Flickr shows how green the valley is during the monsoon season.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chetangole/6059839076/

Reprint of an article first published as Temples of North India by the Department of Information and Broadcasting in 1975. Offering a brief historical background, the piece summarises key architectural features of both Jain and Hindu temples in northern India.

Provided by Kamat's Potpourri.

http://www.kamat.com/database/content/temples/temples_of_gujarat.htm

This YouTube video shows Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin monks and nuns walking down a street in New Delhi in July 2009. Clad in white and wearing the mouth cloth – muṃhpatti – they walk barefoot, carrying their monastic equipment in bags and bundles. They are accompanied by lay Jains, many of the women dressed in orange, which is a holy colour in India. Among the monks is Ācārya Mahāprajña, the tenth ācārya or leader of the sect, who died in May 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZ_SHDSrAI

The Digital Commons for Florida International University provides a downloadable copy of this MA thesis by Shivani Bothra, submitted in 2013.

http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/825/

Acharya Mahashraman goes through some practices and attitudes that improve the chances of gaining a better condition – gati – in the next birth in the cycle of rebirths – saṃsāra. This chapter from his 2011 book Let Us Learn To Live is provided on the HereNow4U website.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=84944

Colette Caillat, A. N. Upadhye and Bal Patil outline the central tenets of the Jain religion in this chapter from their 1974 work Jainism, including:

• the 'three gems'
• knowledge
• doctrine of 'truth from many viewpoints'
• tattvas
• soul
• karma
• leśyās
• cosmology
• cycles of time
• Jinas.

The online version is provided on the HereNow4U website.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=77149

In this chapter from The Quest For Truth: In the context of Anekanta, Ācārya Mahāprajña of the Śvetāmbara Terāpanth sect looks at the relationship between soul and karma. First published in 2003, the book is available online on the HereNow4U website.

To move to the next page of the chapter, click on an arrow or slide the button along the scroll bar at the top and bottom of each page.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=cd9267

HereNow4U presents chapter three of Bhagwaan Mahaveer Evam Jain Darshan, which discusses karma in Jainism. Originally written in Hindi by Mahavir Saran Jain in 2013, this book is translated into English by Pradyumna Shah Singh.

To move to another page, click on one of the arrows or slide the button along the scroll bar at the top and bottom of each page.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=98354

This PhD thesis by Sohan Raj Tater examines how the Jain concept of karma relates to the science of genetics. The full text is available on the HereNow4U website.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=66673

In this chapter from his 1992 book Essence of Jainism, Manubhai Doshi goes into the Jain concept of liberation. The 2011 online version is presented on the HereNow4U website.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=78604

A. Chakravarti explains some of the key teachings of the Jain faith, which has the principle of ahiṁsā – non-violence – at its centre.

This text, which includes information on the 'three gems' and the Jinas, is provided by the Jainism Literature Center, associated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/ahimsamsg.htm

Anop R. Vora briefly outlines the concept of karma within the Jain religion. The information is provided by the Jainism Literature Center, associated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/karma.htm

Manubhai Doshi looks at the Jain concepts of karma and the cycle of rebirth in this chapter from Essence of Jainism, first published in 1992. The online version is on the HereNow4U website.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=78398

This 2011 YouTube video explores the cave temple at Thirumalai, near Arni in Tamil Nadu. The temple contain statues and inscriptions on rocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APCBSFjzg7E

The TamilJains website provides photographs of the Thirumalai site in Tamil Nadu. There are pictures of the cave temples, idols, inscriptions and paintings.

http://www.tamiljains.org/thirumalai

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, presents this lavishly illustrated folio from a Kalpa-sūtra-Kālakācārya manuscript. Dating from the late 15th century, this western Indian picture demonstrates artistic developments that became common in later Indian paintings.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/60050555

This slideshow from the Digambar Jain Trilok Shodh Sansthan – Digambar Jain Institute of Cosmographic Research – in Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh, shows photos of its three-dimensional model of Jambudweep – Jambū-dvīpa in Sanskrit – and other pictures of the institute. Some 70 metres across, the model of the first continent houses a 30-metre-tall Mount Meru up which visitors can climb.

http://www.jambudweep.org/gallery/jambudweep-campus-photo-gallery

This 2009 video on YouTube is a tour of the Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram, in Agas in Gujarat. Established in 1920, it is dedicated to the teachings of Śrīmad Rājacandra, a 19th-century mystic, poet and reformer. The video takes the viewer from the sign outside the main gate through one of the two temples on the site to the lecture hall, which displays photographs of and quotations from Rājacandra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O7Ys3xjV3M

The mothers of Jinas experience auspicious dreams indicating that their children will grow up to be great spiritual leaders. The Śvetāmbara sect lists 14 dreams while the Digambaras specify 16 dreams. This information was provided for the 1997 festival of Mahāvīr Jayantī by JAINA, made available on a faculty private page on the Colorado State University website.

http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/j/dreams16/Dreams16.html

Information about the 12 vows Jain lay people can take, provided by Pravin K. Shah on the website of the Jainism Literature Center, associated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/jainedu/12vows.htm

This YouTube video dating from 2009 shows two Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin samaṇīs tallking about their religious background and beliefs. They hold folded cloths in front of their mouths while they speak. Normally Śvetāmbara Terāpanthin monks and nuns wear a mouthcloth – muṃhpatti – permanently over their mouths, hanging from strings over the ears. Samaṇīs have important roles in teaching the Jain diaspora.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWQDmhVE9to

Information about the types of śalākā-puruṣas or mahā-puruṣas – ‘great men’ – in traditional Jain stories is provided by the Shrimad website. This information is not considered to be correct by scholars but represents a popular contemporary understanding of the categories of the 'great men'.

http://www.shrimad.com/jainstories.html

Shugan Chand Jain classifies Jain holy sites in this excerpt from his piece entitled 'Jain Festivals (Parva) and Jain Pilgrimage (Teerth yatra)-(B) Pilgrimage'. It forms part of the study notes offered by the International School for Jain Studies in 2009.

This extract was published on HereNow4U.net in 2008.

http://www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=64649

Hemant Shah outlines the types of knowledge in the Jain faith on the website of the Jainism Literature Center, associated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/jnana.htm