This is the twenty-eighth installment of AJP's Spiritual Asia series, which explores the religious traditions, philosophical ideas and moral foundations that have shaped Asia's civilizations. In this concluding chapter of our three-part journey through Japanese Shinto, we examine how a faith rooted in reverence for nature was transformed into an instrument of the modern state, and how it later returned to everyday life.
The great religions of humanity take on new meaning as the times change. This is because they carry truths that outlast any single era. Jainism is no exception. A small ascetic community that began in India roughly two thousand five hundred years ago is now posing questions that feel more urgent than ever to a humanity living through artificial intelligence, climate crisis, and an age of endless competition and consumption. How far should human beings grow? What is true abundance, and what is true freedom? What does civilization exist for?
Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, never sought to build a great empire during his lifetime. He believed that changing the human heart came before changing the world. His conviction was that no system, no power, and no civilization could endure if people failed to overcome greed, anger, and attachment. That teaching has not aged a day in the twenty-five centuries since.
To the end of his life, Mahavira preached nonviolence, truthfulness, restraint, and non-possession. He understood death not as an ending but as the completion of liberation, the moment the soul breaks free of all bondage. This is why his nirvana is remembered not as an occasion for grief but as a symbol of the highest freedom a human being can reach. It is also why Jain believers continue to mark the anniversary of his nirvana with such reverence today.
Mahavira's greatest legacy was not the expansion of a religious order but the expansion of human dignity itself. He warned against the arrogance of believing that only humans mattered, insisting that all forms of life, great or small, held equal worth. His insight that even a tiny insect or an unnamed blade of grass carries the value of life has become an idea that modern ecological philosophy and environmental ethics are returning to.
This spirit later left a deep mark on India's independence movement. Mahatma Gandhi, in particular, drew heavily on the Jain principle of ahimsa, or nonviolence, as he developed his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. The belief that violence cannot defeat violence, and that truth and conscience ultimately move history, became a spiritual cornerstone of human rights and peace movements far beyond India's borders.
Humanity has achieved extraordinary scientific and technological progress, yet it now faces climate change, ecological collapse, deepening inequality, and a crisis of ethics. Generative artificial intelligence is expanding human capability enormously, but it cannot substitute for human conscience or responsibility. It is precisely here that Jainism, far from being merely an old religion, is being read again as an ethic for the civilization of the future.
Jainism does not tell people to own more. It urges them to want less, reflect more deeply, and coexist more broadly. This is not a call to abandon growth but a call to redirect it. Jainism has long taught that the true measure of a civilization lies not in output but in how much it respects life, and not in the speed of its technology but in the dignity of its people.
Gandhi, the World Peace Movement, and Jainism's Greatest Legacy
The greatest legacy a religion can leave is not measured in the number of temples it builds. It is measured in how it changes a single conscience, and how that conscience goes on to change the course of human history. The single greatest legacy Jainism left to world civilization was the spirit of nonviolence, known as ahimsa.
In Jainism, ahimsa is not simply a prohibition against killing. It is an entire orientation toward life, one that refuses to harm any living being through thought, word, or deed. Violence, in this view, does not begin the moment a sword is drawn. It begins the moment hatred, greed, envy, and arrogance take root in the heart. True peace, then, is not merely the absence of war but the absence of violence within the human mind.
This philosophy became the ethical soil of Indian society for thousands of years, and in the modern era it was carried onto the world stage by one towering figure, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi valued conscience above political independence itself, believing that any victory won through violence would only give birth to further violence. His movement of satyagraha, meaning the force of truth, drew not only from Hindu tradition but also from the deep influence of Jain ahimsa.
Gandhi's nonviolent resistance became a model for human rights movements well beyond India's independence struggle. Martin Luther King Jr. later practiced nonviolent resistance in the American civil rights movement, and Nelson Mandela in South Africa pursued a path of reconciliation and coexistence in building a new nation. Their historical circumstances and philosophical roots differed, but each placed conscience and justice above violence, a stance that echoes the tradition of nonviolence Jainism had cultivated for centuries.
In an age of nuclear weapons, drones, and artificial intelligence deployed in warfare, peace still begins in the human mind. The Jain insight that advanced weapons do not end wars, but human conscience does, feels more pressing now than ever.
Sustainable Development, ESG, and an Ancient Philosophy for the Future
Sustainability has become one of the most frequently used words of the twenty-first century. There is a growing global consensus that economies must grow while nature survives alongside them, and that companies must turn a profit while also carrying social responsibility.
Jainism, however, had already been practicing these values some two thousand five hundred years earlier. It taught that nature is not something for humans to conquer but a community of life to be shared, and that respecting other living beings is, in effect, a way of protecting oneself. Strict vegetarianism and a culture of restrained consumption were not simply religious rituals. They were practical efforts to protect life.
Environmental, social, and governance standards, commonly known as ESG, have become a new benchmark for corporate management today. The lesson the global economy has drawn is that companies that protect the environment, uphold social responsibility, and maintain transparent governance are the ones that grow sustainably. Jainism argues that this must begin not with regulation but with human conscience. When greed recedes, the environment recovers. When honesty grows, social trust grows with it. In the end, sustainability begins with human ethics, not with technology.
Jainism, Read Anew in the Age of Generative AI
Generative artificial intelligence is opening a new chapter of civilization for humanity. It is expanding human creativity and driving innovation across medicine, education, and industry in remarkable ways. At the same time, it forces a set of fundamental questions on us. Who does technology exist to serve? When efficiency and life come into conflict, which one takes priority? How much of human judgment can we hand over to machines?
Jainism offers a clear standard for answering these questions. Technology must exist for the sake of life, and it must be used in ways that elevate human dignity. However sophisticated a technology may be, if it harms life or erodes what makes us human, it cannot be called true progress.
Artificial intelligence can perform calculations in our place, but it cannot replace conscience. An algorithm can produce an answer, but it cannot choose between good and evil. In the end, the level of the civilization we build will be determined not by the performance of our AI systems but by the ethical level of the people who use them. The restraint, responsibility, and reverence for life that Jainism has long emphasized will remain among the most important standards of the AI era.
Humanity is living through the most materially abundant period in its history, and yet it is also experiencing an extraordinary degree of conflict and anxiety. The belief that owning more will make us happier has not, in practice, held true. Unchecked desire, if anything, has damaged nature, destabilized communities, and left the human spirit depleted.
Jainism offers a quiet but unambiguous answer. Freedom does not lie in possessing more, but in being attached to less. Peace does not lie in defeating others, but in overcoming oneself.
Politics must put its people before its power. Business must value trust above profit. Journalism must choose truth over speed, and education must cultivate character and conscience, not just knowledge. Science and technology must serve human beings, and artificial intelligence, too, must develop on a foundation of respect for life.
Mahavira taught, some two thousand five hundred years ago, that the one who conquers himself is the greatest of all victors. That single line still functions as a compass for civilization today. We may be living through the age of artificial intelligence, but what ultimately determines our future is not technology. It is human nature. Those who respect life, restrain their greed, and practice truth are the ones who will truly lead civilization forward.
This is why Jainism is not simply an old religion. It is an old future. As humanity stands at the threshold of a new civilizational turning point, Jainism asks us the same question once again. Should we possess more, or should we live more rightly. The answer to that question will shape the future of human civilization itself.
This reverence for life is not unique to Jainism. It also runs deep in Korea's own spiritual tradition. Yu Young-mo, the philosopher known as Dasseok who held Gandhi in deep respect, believed that all life is connected within one great life, and he spent his life emphasizing that humanity, nature, and the cosmos form a single whole. This view resonates closely with the Jain spirit of ahimsa, which holds all life sacred and forbids harming any being without cause. Civilizations differ, but the wisdom that looks upon life with reverence is one and the same, and the great spiritual traditions of Asia all stand on the shared values of respect for life, restraint, and coexistence.
*The author is a senior columnist of AJP.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.