Bhagvana Mahavira

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 17

Thirty Years of Family Life
exertion cannot be a follower of ahimsa, nor can one who does not value peace in life. Similarly, one who does not practise equality cannot practise non-violence.
Bhagavān Pārsva gave a momentum to the movement of ahiṁsā as a result of which the people of Sindhu, Sauvīra, Anga, Kuru, Pāñcāla, Kāśī and Kausala came under its influence.
The soothing message of ahimsā came as a great relief to the victims of widespread violence in the same way in which the first showers of the summer rain are welcome to those sweating in the heat of the summer sun. The movement which had once grown weak was now made powerful again by Bhagavān Pārsva. His campaign to establish ahiṁsā as a social ideal made him very popular. This made him rise above the limitations of the old Sramaņa tradition. He became a cosmopolitan figure. He attained nirvāna in 777 B.C.
The rising sun floods the whole world with light, but when it sets, everything is again plunged into darkness. This drama is enacted every day. Lord Pārsva appeared on the stage of history like the rising sun and enlivened the world with the light of ahiṁsā but soon after his nirvana the movement of ahiṁsā began to grow thin. His followers becams inactive. Let us keep in mind the elementary truth that every particle of the world shines by the light of the sun and that as soon as the sun sets, the particles grow dark. That has been the fate of the history of mankind also. The appearance of a great man on the scene opens a new chapter in history, but soon after his death, historical progress slows down and ultimately comes to a stand-still. Those who illumine the world with their own light are very few indeed and the world seldom shines by its own light. Hardly two hundred years had gone by after the nirvāņa of Bhagavān Pārsva when the steady onward movement of ahiṁsā lost its force. The dark forces of inaction, disquiet and inequality engulfed the people so much so that they began to await eagerly a