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Very very far back in tiuie, countless untold milleniuras agn, sbortly after the first clouds began to form in the sky and the first water to descend on earth. We can only conjecture as to what really happened but it would seem that after a long time und at a period when there were no omniscient men to give warning, certain of the followers of Jainism who happened to be endowed with a fanciful imagination allied to poetical genius, bau the idea of originating a new and pleasant pastime for whiling a way the many idle moments they scene to have had. They to tuy with the Word of Truth and gradually to personify some aspects of the Doctrine as gods and goddesses building elegaut imaginative myths round them. Their work seenis to have been much appreciated and their hidden charm to have proved 80 attractive that men of all classes and all lands took up the vult with enthusiasm. With the result that every body tried to outvie his neighbour in the new art of clever disguise, and the Word of Law was literally smothered under the prolific productions of poetic fame and came finally to be lost to view.
After a time, temples and pagodas were built to house representatives of those mythological conceptions of the mind and the uninitated masses were invited and encouraged by the new priestly class that arose, to worship these man-made deities.
Then later still, the rabble turned the tables and then sprang up a sharp division between the esoterics and the exoterics-the priests who held the secret and the vulgar laity who fed them. Men are not born with an understanding of the secret significance of allegorical myths and it came to pass that the masses became firnıly fixed in their lelief in the exoteric faith which alone was known to them. Intolerance of any other view began to wax strong in them. As it grew stronger, it led invariably to religious persecution. The nun ber of esoterics dwindled, Matters eventually came to such a pass that no esoteric dared preach the truth openly. It was at this time, that the wisdom of sccret iuitiation was recognised and the first institutions and mysteryludges were established for the purpose. They went by different
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| SR No. | 008001 |
| Book Title | Shraman Bhagvana Mahavira Part 1 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Ratnaprabhvijay, D P Thaker |
| Publisher | Parimal Publication |
| Publication Year | 1989 |
| Total Pages | 650 |
| Language | English, Sanskrit |
| Classification | Book_English, Biography, History, & Religion |
| File Size | 15 MB |