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The Sramanic Vision Buddha and Mahavira
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leads to attachment of karmic particle, which in turn leads to infinite cycles of life and death.? The search for self knowledge and self realization is the only way to transcend this world and attain liberation. This is the true welfare of all which can be attained by leading a life of self abnegation, severe penances, absolute non-violence and by cultivating an attitude of compassion and equality towards all creatures. The Vedic vision of unity in diversity was relegated to the background and a sharp cleavage was created between man and nature. “The spiritual quest of the Sramanas", writes Prof. G.C. Pandey, was thus purely negative, viz to transcend the realm of suffering and transience. In a sense, it could also be called subjective since it required man to withdraw from all contact with society and nature.
Buddha too preached non-violence. There is a striking resemblance between the life of Buddha and that of Mahavira. The Buddhist doctrine had a different epistemology which could not adapt itself to the brahmanical position. While the Vedas believed that the intra-cosmic Gods were also real, they represented the primal fire from which the whole Universe originated. Jainism so emphasized the importance of karma that these Gods become more or less irrelevant, Buddhism emphasized the importance of the psychic transformation for the attainment of nirvana.
Buddha was deeply struck by the fact of change in human life. He thought permanence was merely a mental construct. In was not a Quality of the cosmic process, which was a result of the constant working of the human mind without any permanent spiritual substance. Buddhist even denied existence of a soul passing from life to life in fulfillment of it post actions. Early Buddhist thought despised politics as a necessary evil. There is full-fledged treatment of political ideas is Buddhist literature of the period. Two features stand out very clearly. First Buddhism subscribed to the contract theory of the origin of state. It is not difficult to see the connection between this and the association of
