Lord Mahavira Vol 03

SR No.: 023278
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S C Rampuria
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 232
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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Lord Mahâvîra
days by the prophets of Jainism. It is also said that he repudiated casteism, deicried animal sacrifice and ridiculed the rituals etc. This is but a half truth. He did not work exclusively for the ending of these evils. He kept his vision very high. He aspired for the highest goal of life i.e., emancipation and worked for it. Non violence became manifest. In the light of it, all the evils became visible and the exponents of these evils were nonplussed. In the context of Ahimsa the Lord said, “No one in this world is great or small, high or low. Caste is unreal. Those who look on others as high or low on the basis of caste get stuck in the mire of self-delusion. Those who are of high character belong to the highest caste. He alone is great who is free from the bonds of love and hatred. Spirituality knows no distinction of caste or creed, ignorance or knowledge, affluence or poverty.
Mahâvîra was a radical and a revolutionary. No doubt he trod the path of his predecessors, but at the same time brought a new outlook to bear on the whole of Jain philosophy. Ahimas is an eternal truth. It is definite and everlasting. Mahâvîra looked at it from different angles, and applied it in solving the day to day problems of the age, Slave-trade, casteism, language problem and many similar intractables were solved through it. He revised and elaborated the rules governing monks and nuns; and presented a systematic code of conduct for the lay-devotees. The principle of religious tolerance was inculcated among the masses, and he declared with rare clarity and sincerity that self purification was not confined to any particular creed. He successfully refuted : all bigoted theories which insisted that theirs was the only way of approach to truth, emancipation or salvation. This intolerant dogma was anathema to Mahâvîra. He always declared : "Truth is infinite, It knows no limitations. Whosever exerts with zeal and an earnest desire to know truth can reach it. Truth knows no distinctions. It is beyond regional and every other limitations.”