Mahavira
Much like Buddha, Mahavira is not a name but a title. In Sanksrit महावीर, it means "Great Hero". His real name is Vardamana (वर्धमान), he lived (traditionally) from 599 to 527 BCE and founded what is commonly known as Jainism (जैनधर्म better translated as Jainadharma).
His story is incredibly similar to the story of Buddha. He was an Indian prince born in a royal family to King Siddartha and Queen Trishala. While still in his mother's womb it is believed he brought wealth and prosperity to the entire kingdom, which is why he was named Vardhaman. An increase of all good things, like the abundant bloom of beautiful flowers, was noticed in the kingdom after his conception. Trishala had a number of auspicious dreams before giving birth to Vardhaman (14 according to the Svetambaras and 16 according to the Digambaras), signs foretelling the advent of a great soul. Vardhaman's birthday is celebrated as Mahavir Jayanti, the most important religious holiday of Jains around the world.
As King Siddartha's son, he lived as a prince. However, even at that tender age he exhibited a virtuous nature. He started engaging in meditation and immersed himself in self-contemplation. He was interested in the core beliefs of Jainism and began to distance himself from worldly matters.
At the age of thirty Mahavira renounced his kingdom and family, gave up his worldly possessions, and spent twelve years as an ascetic. During these twelve years he spent most of his time meditating. He gave utmost regard to other living beings, including humans, animals and plants, and avoided harming them. He had given up all worldly possessions including his clothes, and lived an extremely austere life. He exhibited exemplary control over his senses while enduring the penance during these years. His courage and bravery earned him the name Mahavira.
Mahavira devoted the rest of his life to preaching the eternal truth of spiritual freedom to people around India. He traveled barefoot and without clothes, enduring harshest of climates, meeting people from all walks of life who came to listen to his message. Mahavira's preaching and efforts to explain Jain philosophy is considered the real catalyst to the spread of this ancient religion throughout India.
At the age of 72 years and 4 and a half months, he attained nirvana in the area known as Pawapuri on the last day of the Indian and Jain calendars, Diwali. Jains celebrate this as the day he attained liberation or moksa. Jains believe Mahavira lived from 599–527 BCE, though some scholars prefer 549–477 BCE.
- Nonviolence (Ahimsa) – to cause no harm to any living being;
- Truthfulness (Satya) – to speak the harmless truth only;
- Non-stealing (Asteya) – to take nothing not properly given;
- Chastity (Bramacharya) – to indulge in no sensual pleasure;
- Non-possession/Non-attachment (Aparigraha) – to detach completely from people, places, and material things.
Jainism is largely considered one of the most peaceful religions in practice today.
St. John of the Cross
Without St. Teresa of Avila, St. John would probably have gone insane. She was his light at the end of the tunnel, and together they co-founded the Discalced Carmelite order. His father gave up wealth, status, and comfort when he married a weaver's daughter and was disowned by his noble family. After his father died, his mother kept the destitute family together as they wandered homeless in search of work. When the family finally found work, John still went hungry in the middle of the wealthiest city in Spain. At fourteen, John took a job caring for hospital patients who suffered from incurable diseases and madness. It was out of this poverty and suffering, that John learned to search for beauty and happiness not in the world, but in God.
On 24 February 1563 he entered the Carmelite order, adopting the name Fr. Juan de Santo Matía. The following year (1564) he professed as a Carmelite (was promoted from novice status) and moved to Salamanca, where he studied theology and philosophy at the University and at the Colegio de San Andrés. This stay would influence all his later writings, as Fray Luis de León taught biblical studies (Exegesis, Hebrew and Aramaic) at the University. León was one of the foremost experts in Biblical Studies then and had written an important and controversial translation of the Song of Songs into Spanish. (Translation of the Bible into the vernacular was not allowed then in Spain.)
John was ordained a priest in 1567, and then indicated his intent to join the strict Carthusian order, which appealed to him because of its encouragement of solitary and silent contemplation. Before this, however, he travelled to Medina del Campo, where he met the charismatic Teresa de Jesús (Teresa of Avila). She immediately talked to him about her reformation projects for the Carmelite order, and asked to delay his entry into the Carthusians. The following year, on 28 November, he started this reformation at Duruelo together with Fr. Antonio de Jesús de Heredia, and the originally small and impoverished town of Duruelo became a center of religion.
The followers of Juan de la Cruz and Teresa de Jesús differentiated themselves from the non-reformed communities by calling themselves the "discalced", i.e., barefoot, and the others the "calced" Carmelites. But many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John's own order kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell six feet by ten feet and beaten three times a week by the monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling. Yet in that unbearable dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but God -- and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell.
After nine months, John escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the guard. Taking only the mystical poetry he had written in his cell, he climbed out a window using a rope made of stirps of blankets. With no idea where he was, he followed a dog to civilization. He hid from pursuers in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the nuns. From then on his life was devoted to sharing and explaining his experience of God's love.
His life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to a compassionate mystic, who lived by the beliefs that "Who has ever seen people persuaded to love God by harshness?" and "Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love."
St. John of the Cross is considered one of the foremost poets in the Spanish language. Although his complete poems add up to fewer than 2500 verses, two of them—the Spiritual Canticle and The Dark Night are widely considered masterpieces of Spanish poetry, both for their formal stylistic point of view and their rich symbolism and imagery. St. John also wrote four treatises on mystical theology, two treatises concerning the two poems above, which set out to explain the true meaning of the poems verse by verse and even word by word.
The third work, Ascent of Mount Carmel is a more systematic study of the ascetical endeavour of a soul looking for perfect union, God, and the mystical events happening along the way. A four stanza work, Living Flame of Love describes a greater intimacy, as the soul responds to God's love. These, together with his Dichos de Luz y Amor, or "Sayings of Light and Love," and St. Teresa's writings, are the most important mystical works in Spanish, and have deeply influenced later spiritual writers all around the world. Among these can be named T. S. Eliot, Thérèse de Lisieux, Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), and Thomas Merton. John has also influenced philosophers (Jacques Maritain), theologians (Hans Urs von Balthasar), pacifists (Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, and Philip Berrigan) and artists (Salvador Dalí). Pope John Paul II wrote his theological dissertation on the mystical theology of Saint John of the Cross.
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To Be Continued...
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Mahavira - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavira
Jainism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism
St. John of the Cross (Wikipedia) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_the_Cross
St. John of the Cross (Catholic.org) - http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=65
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