Some Aspects of Indian Culture

SR No.: 001132
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A S Gopani, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1981
Total Pages: 211
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Discourse
File Size: 15 MB

Page 19

10
Some Aspect in Indian Culture
seven changes, (parivartas) in the last birth of a sentient human being preceding emancipation. This is the world according to him. All the siddhas had to pass through them, and all the candidates for the final release will have to do so whether they will it or not. It is preordained for me and you and all. There is no escape out of it, no short-cut whatever. Moreover the souls had to work out 500,000 karimas of the past and 60,603 varieties thereof. 16 We also get in Dighanikāya a description of the worloly existence, though different in detail. 11 In Bhagavatisūtra Gośālaka gods on describing Mahakalpa, etc. in his own fashion with which we are not so much concerned bere. In the preceding paragraphs I have said that Niyativāda forms the found. ation-stone of Gośālaka's philosophy. It is this, rather than anything else, which differentiates Gogalaka's philosophy from Mahavira's. Mabāvira is a confirmed exponent of puruşārtha. While assigning proper place to destiny he preaches with sincerity and force that it is the soul that has to undo what it has once done out of ignorance or nescience. He recognizes innate infinite power of the soul and makes room for purusärtha the ultimate result of which is liberation. With Mahavira, prärabdha means something like past actions. Thus he acknowledges them both as bare metaphysical necessities, while Gośālaka believes only in niyati and nothing else. If this fundamental difference is taken into consideration it will be easy for us to understand Gogalaka's philosophy in its true perspective. We saw that he believes with Mahavira in the beginninglessness of the world. I differ from Shri K. J. KARAGATHALA when he says in his otherwise scholarly article, “Mankhali Gogālaka and his creed 18", that the world is limited according to Gośālaka, implying thereby that the world as such ends at a particular point, I think Shri KARAGATHALA is mistaken in so stat. ing because the words used by Goğalaka in the 15th Satakaof Bhagavati sütra do not warrant it.19 On the contrary, Gośālaka believes like Mabāvıra in the beginninglessness and endlessness of the wordly existence. So when Gośālaka says that a man becomes a siddha or is freed only after passing through a predetermined cycle of births and deaths, he means to say that only from the viewpoint of an individual, According to him also the world as such will for ever last. It never comes to a stop. To he still more explicit, Gośālaka does not believe in anything like the so-called terminus as Shri KARAGATHALA takes him to believe. Gośālaka believes that a man is chained down to this worldly existence from time immemorial. Why? The answer is niyati. How? Niyati is the perpetual reply. He will get an emancipation after passing through a particular cycle. 'Why ? The reason of reasons is niyati. A man will have to undo or neutralize a certain number of Karmas. Why and how? The reply is niyati. Niyati for Gośālaka is what the Brahma is for a Vedantin, that is, a rule of rules and a solution of solutions. To put it technically, according to Gogalaka, the world is Anādi and Ananta from the viewpoint of the world, but Anādi and Santa from the viewpoint of an individual. This is exactly what is preached also by Mahavira. The turning points in the philosophies of these two are karma and niyati in the case of Mahavira and Gośālaka respectively. Metaphysical necessity of karma is fulfilled by niyati in Gośālaka's philosohpy. A man is liberated the moment he destroys all the
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