The Great Warrior
Mahavira means the “Great Warrior”. That is the name given by the Samanars to the accomplished ones. Samanars were one of the many precursor aboriginal cultures that later contributed significantly to Jainism in Tamil Nadu around 1st century AD; see article on Samanars.
While common society endows the title of “great warrior” on war heroes, these spiritual traditions recognized only those who had mastered themselves as the true warriors or conquerors.
That is, not a conquest of lands and peoples, but the “conquest” and the mastery of one’s inner self. For these people, the pursuit of the Spirit, the spiritual path, was not for the weak, wavering, or faint-hearted, but required the stealth and determination of a warrior. They were also critical thinkers well beyond their time, even by today’s measure. I can only imagine how intense their meditations had to be considering the layers of conditionings we mortals would have to shed to reach such heights of self-realization. They took the most direct path, walking on the razors edge.
This is not limited to just the Mahaviras of the Samanars, but such direct paths can also be found in the traditions of the Siddhars, Aghoris, Nagas, the Native Americans (the spirit masters, medicine men/women, shamans, and naguals), the wiccans and pagans of pre-Christian Europe, the Aboriginals of Australia, Siberia, Mongolia, and so on.
The other parallel tradition and equally vigorous tradition that flourished in that time period was that of the Siddhars in Tamil Nadu. The Siddhars, aimed at the perfection of the body-spiritual. This is not “body” as in physical form, but in activating energy elements in the body (kundalini chakras), so as to merge the body-spiritual (not the body-material) with the Self or Atman. The idea was that the body-physical (and the material world) was no more not-material than the consciousness. It’s probably from this focus arose the tradition of Siddha medicine, including methods for extending youth and longevity, regeneration, healing
The one book that’s considered the crest of the peacock on the subject of kundalini is Thirumoolar’s Thirumanthiram. It’s a difficult read, I don’t understand most of it, but still doesn’t prevent me from revisiting it every few years. If anything, the exercise is maybe yet another way of getting us to churn our souls in different directions and get into the mode of critical thinking/meditation. Though the Siddha texts are written in current Tamil, it intentionally uses a mode of conveying things called sandhya basha (or “twilight language”), which unwinds or reveals itself only to those who ask the right critical questions (and not looking for the “right” answers).
Note: People sometimes put a spin on the meaning of Mahavira or Great Warrior as an inner battle of good vs evil. Which is far from the truth, as one of their first realizations (before they even embark on this path) is that the distinction between good vs evil are human conditions that need to be transcended. Opposing forces exist in Nature, but to apply “good vs evil” attributes, or even to call them “opposing” forces is because of human conditioning. There is no inner battle. As mentioned earlier, it has more to do with stealth and determination, than a battle between conflicting elements.
Books
- Shiva and the Primordial Tradition – Alain Danielou.
- Aghora – Robert E. Svoboda
- The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar – T. N. Ganapathy (poorly written, but informative and enlightening)
- Thirumantiram – Thirumoolar