The Tents of Jainism:

There are seven cardinal tents of Jainism:

1. In the universe only two things exist eternally matter and soul.
2. All the living beings great and small, from the microscopic germs to human beings as we perceive and experience in the universe, are the result of fusion of Master and Soul. No Separate Supreme Power creates the universe or controls its affairs.

3. Living being have got entangled with matter due to their own karmas, wrong beliefs, wrong conceptions, wrong tendencies and wrong actions and undergo births and deaths along with the integrating and disintegrating matter which make soul and matter in distinguishable companions, but this bond or companionship is liable to be broken.

4. The Soul gets rid of the Karmns through Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right conduct. The snapping of the bond between Soul and Master is called Emancipation.

5. God is the most piteous and an Emancipated soul. His attributes are Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Perfect Bliss, Immortality and Defectlessnes. For the earthy beings He constitutes a model and thus indirectly serving as a constant guide leads them to their emancipation. It is, therefore incumbent upon human beings to worship Him for their own good.

6. There are infinite number of souls in the Universe. Every now and then soem of them attain salvation but this universe does not get emptied even though these souls do not come back to the physical arena.

7. Ahimsa or Universal Brotherhood is the greatest of all religions and self-reliance and self knowledge are the greatest ethical principles for higher advancement.

(Translated from Jain-Mat-Sar by Late L. Summar Chand Jain. Divisional Accountant, Punjab, Ambala)