Shraman Bhagvana Mahavira Part 2 Vibhag 1

SR No.: 008002
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ratnaprabhvijay, D P Thaker
Publisher: Parimal Publication
Publication Year: 1989
Total Pages: 623
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English, Biography, History, & Religion
File Size: 14 MB

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On the other hand was the world many-sided and changing in a ceaseless round of change, domain of sorrows and misery.
It was in such a miserable world that the human soulthe individual Ātman is imprisoned. By Karma or deeds It is subjected to an interminable transmigration a hotch-potch of existences--Saṁsāra-right upto the day when, freeing itself at last, it assimilates or identifies itself with the Soul Supreme, with Brahma. Then, it reaches Deliverance.
Deliverance! This is the word which brings to a head the antithesis between Brahma and the Universe.
Under the influence of these ideas, people naturally exerted themselves to sever themselves from every tie, from every bond. The mears to bring about such & disengagement from worldly things, were various; some of them were very fantastic. But the one mos simple and most realizable consisted in being like a mendicant monk.
According to the teachings of Brahmanic religion, the state of an anchorite was counted among the four-Ashramas-i-e the successive stages of human existence. In the early days, these wandering ascetics-the sannyāsins as they were called, were recruited from the most cultivated caste-the Brāhmans.
Whatever, however, may have been the superiority which this social class arrogated itself, it could not claim as its sole monopoly, the Search alter Deliverance. In virtue of the same rights as the Brāhmans, members of other castes had the right to become anchorites, ascetics or mendicants. One by one appeared on the scene, the great masters who were not Brāhmans bringing the good news and showing the way to salvahonor Dellverance. Thus were constituted the orders like those of the Jains or of the Buddhists which recommended themselves preferably to the Ksatriyas and which were recruited from this warlike and princely caste. And what was more, they show no signs of any exclusiveness whatever and willingly received among them representatives of lower (other) castes.