Lord Mahavira

SR No.: 034936
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Boolchand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Publication Year: 1948
Total Pages: 124
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 112

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Nihnavas
The twenty-seventh year of Mahavira's ascetic life, that is, the fifteenth year after the attainment of kevalihood, the year of his famous encounter with Gosāla, was marked by the occurrence of the first schism in the community, when Jamāli separated from the Lord with a small band of his disciples who afterwards gradually left him. The event that had led to the dissension can briefly be stated as follows. Once Jamāli begged permission to go wandering with a large number of ascetics, but Mahavira gave no reply even after being asked three times. Jamāli, however, did not wait for the permission any further and left Mahavira, together with his own disciples. While thus wandering independently, once upon a time he went to Śrāvasti and stayed at the Tinduka garden. He had been suffering from fever at the time and asked his companion ascetics to stretch a bed to lie down upon. While they were stretching the bed, he asked them whether it was ready. They replied in the affirmative. But when Jamali found that it was only being made ready, he got angry, and ascribed their affirmative answer to their false doctrine that a thing in the making is as good as a thing completely made (TRIOT 55). His companions tried to convince him of the soundness of the doctrine, but he would not listen to them. There was much discussion about Jamāli's refutation of the doctrine, and some of his disciples left him consequently. Jamāli visited. Mahavira at Campā in order to inform him that he had attained omniscience. But when Mahavira refused to admit his claim, Jamāli felt humiliated and finally left him to establish his own order. His order, however, does not appear to have lasted for long. It is most probable that his order did not survive him, Jamāli" is the first Nihnava dissenter in the Sangha established by Mahavira.
The texts record six more such Nihnavas belonging to different periods, within the first six centuries Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat