Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 94

[ 87 ]
and if we following one way only of expression or of viewing things, we needs must go astray.
11. There is nothing in all this which sounds deeply speculative; on the contrary, the Jain theory of Being seems to be a vindication of common sense against the paradoxical speculations of the Upanishads. It is also, but, not primarily, directed against the Buddhistic tenet of the transitoriness of all that exists. We cannot, however, say that it expressly and consciously combats the Buddhistic view, or that it was formulated in order to combat it. And this agrees well with the historical facts, that Mahavira çame long after the original Upanishads, but was a contemporary of Buddha. He was obliged, therefore, to frame his system so as to exclude the principles of Brahmanical specula. tion, but his position was a different one with regard to the newly proclaimed system of Buddha,
12. I have not yet touched on the relation between Jain philosophy on the one hand and Sankhya-Yoga on the other. We may expect a greater community of ideas between these systems, since both originated in the same class of religious men, viz. the ascetics known as the Shramanas, or, to use the more modern term, Yogins. As regards the practice of asceticism, the methods
and the aim of Yoga, it has long been proved