Bhagvana Mahavira

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

Page 70

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Bhagavan Mahāvīra
protection. It is only learning and religious conduct that can do so.1 Hence do not take pride in your caste, family and grandeur. You have transcended the limitations of all clandenominations. You are seekers after emancipation which is free from clan-denominations. Only by renouncing the sense of clan-denominations, can you attain that state."2
"Earlier some of you might have been king, and others servants of kings, or the servant of servants. But once you have been initiated into the egalitarian discipline, the distinction between a king and a servant has disappeared. Hence you all should behave in an egalitarian spirit."3
This exhortation of Bhagavan Mahāvīra imbued with egalitarianism swayed the Order. On being instructed in the egalitarian discipline, monks and nuns hailing from different countries and brought up in different environments fostered brotherhood. The spirit of equality created by Bhagavan Mahāvīra in that age of inequality is still the greatest inspiration for the present age also.
once.
Bhagavan Mahāvīra realised the Truth and expounded some principles based on it for the good of the world. People gave him a patient hearing and followed the path shown by him. But no new ideology is acceptable to society all at It has to pass through phases of development and consolidation for a long time before it gains wide acceptance. Freedom, relativism, co-existence, co-operation, service, disarmament, renunciation of war, honest dealings, harmony in precept and practice, ahimsă (non-violence), aparigraha (nonacquisition), celibacy, and vegetarianism-these are some of 1. Ibid, 1/13/11:
na tassa jäi va kulam va tāņam, nannattha vijjācaranam succinnam. 2. Ibid, 1/13/16:
te savvagottavagaya mahesī, uccam agottam ca gatim vayamti. 3. Sütrakṛtānga, 1/2/2/3:
je yāvi anayage siya, je vi ya pesagapesage siyǎ /
je moṇapayam uvatthie, no lajje samayam samācare//