Glossary

• Aloka-ākāśa
  To Jains the universe is composed of two types of space. Outside world space aloka-ākāśa, Non-World Space, which is endless and totally uninhabited. The other is a vast but limited World Space, where the souls move through the cycle of birth. This is loka-ākāśa.
• Ascetic
  Someone who withdraws from ordinary life to meditate and practise physical hardships in order to advance spiritually. Jain ascetics or mendicants beg for food from devout lay followers and wander the land.
  Also used as an adjective to describe the practice of rigorous, even extreme, physical hardships in the belief that it leads to a higher spiritual condition.
• Commentary
  An essay explaining a text. Commentaries on the scriptures are common in the Jain tradition and there are various types, including the:
  bālāvabodha bhāṣya cūrṇi niryukti ṭīkā.
• Cosmology
  A belief system about the universe that covers its origin, structure and parts, and natural laws and characteristics such as space, time, causality and freedom.
• Dhyāna
  Sanskrit for 'meditation', one of the six internal austerities or tapas that help purify the soul of karma. Meditation is deep thought about religious doctrine or mental focus on spiritual matters over a period of time. An important part of many religions, meditation is especially important in Jain belief because it forms key elements of religious practice and spiritual development.
• Jain
  Follower of the 24 Jinas or an adjective describing Jain teachings or practices. The term 'Jaina' is also used although 'Jain' is more common.

• Jīva
  Sanskrit for 'self', 'soul' or 'that which is sentient'. It makes up the universe along with ajīva, or non-sentient material substance. It is a material substance that changes in size according to the body it inhabits in each life. It is born in different bodies in various places in the Jain universe based on karma from earlier lives. The soul is liberated from the cycle of birth when it has achieved spiritual purity and omniscience. Also called ātma or ātman.
• Karma
  Action or act, thought of as physical in Jainism. Created by mental or physical action, karma enters the soul, which then needs religious restraints and practices to make it flow out. Karma can be both:
  

  • negative – deriving from harmful acts
  • positive – arising from beneficial actions.

  
  Both types of karma trap a soul in continual rebirth. A pan-Indian concept, karma has extremely complex, detailed and technical divisions and subdivisions in Jainism.
• Knowledge
  Knowledge', of which there are five main types:
  

  
  
  • mind-based and sensory knowledge – mati-jñāna
  
  
  • scriptural knowledge – śruta-jñāna
  
  
  • extra-sensory knowledge or clairvoyance – avadhi-jñāna
  
  
  • knowledge of others’ minds or telepathy – manaḥparyaya-jñāna
  
  
  • omniscience or absolute knowledge – kevala-jñāna.
  
  

  
  With spiritual progress, one can gain the different types of knowledge.
  
  Also one of the 14 'gateways' or categories of investigation of mārgaṇā or 'soul-quest'.
• Loka
  The universe in Jain cosmology, composed of the upper, middle and lower worlds. Human beings can live only in part of the Middle World.

• Loka-ākāśa
  To Jains the universe is composed of two types of space. A Sanskrit term meaning 'world space', loka-ākāśa is a vast but limited area, which is the inhabited universe where all jivas, humans, deities and all other forms of life live. Here the souls live and travel through the cycle of rebirths. It is also where the other substances are found the pudgal, dharma, adharma and kāla. Outside it is 'non-world space' – aloka-ākāśa.
• Madhya-loka
  There are three worlds in traditional Jain cosmology. The middle world is where human beings and animals live, and sits between the upper and the lower worlds.
• Omniscience
  Omniscience, enlightenment or perfect knowledge – the highest of the five types of knowledge, where one knows everything wherever and whenever it is. It is extremely difficult to attain, equivalent to the 13th stage of spiritual purity in the guṇa-sthāna. Digambaras believe only men can achieve it whereas Śvetāmbaras believe that both men and women can become enlightened.
• Prākrit
  A term for any of the dead vernacular languages of ancient and medieval India. It may be contrasted with classical Sanskrit, the language used by priests and the aristocracy. The Jains used a large variety of Prakrits, with the Jain canon written chiefly in Ardhamāgadhī Prākrit.
• Sanskrit
  A classical language of India, originally used by priests and nobility. Sanskrit has a rich literary and religious tradition. With only a few thousand native speakers nowadays, it is predominantly used in Hindu religious ceremonies and by scholars.
• Vernacular
  The everyday or common language spoken by people in a particular country or region, often contrasting with the literary form or the national or official language. Similarly, vernacular architecture reflects local conditions and conventions more than other considerations, such as national or international design trends, and may be built by non-professional architects.