Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

Author(s): Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
and the Jainas. These texts also refer to the existence of numerous sects and schools of religious teachers. Thus the Brahmajälasutta of the Dighanikaya refers to sixty-two philosophical opinions.34
The Sutrak ṛtānga mentions three hundred and sixty-three sects and sub-sects prevalent in the age of Mahavira.35 Most of these sects and schools seem to have been led by ascetics called śramaņas, and parivrājakas. Atheism, materialism, determinism, theism, scepticism and agnosticism and other forms of metaphysical theories were prevalent among these teachers. According to Dr. G. C. Pande, the dominant ideas of śramanas and munis were ascetic, pessimistic, atheistic and pluralistic. All these four features are found in early Jainism. Among the teachers of śramana lineage there were the followers of Pārsvanatha. It was during this age of religious ferment and ascetic revival that Vardhamana Mahāvīra appeared on the scene. LIFE OF MAHAVIRA
The word Mahāvīra means "Great Hero." It is an epithet signifying the moral and spiritual achievements, rather than the personal name of the last Tirthankara. Vardhamana was possibly his proper name. He was born possibly in 599 B.C. at Kundapura or Kundalagrāma near Vaiśālī, in modern Basarh, in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. The name of his father was Siddhartha who belonged to the tribe of Jñatṛ kṣatriyas. The name of his mother was Triśalā. She was the sister of Cetaka, the Licchavi chief of Vaiśālī. There are many texts dealing with the biography of Mahavira and they are well known.36
According to the Svetambara tradition, Vardhamana was married to Yasoda and had one daughter named Priyadarśana. This tradition, however, is rejected by the Digambaras. At the age of thirty, he renounced home life and became an ascetic.
During the next twelve and a half years, Vardhamana practised very severe austerities and rigorous bodily mortifications and attained omniscience (kevalajñāna).
Next thirty years he spent in teaching the duty of renunciation and the joy of mercy; he stressed the ascetic mode of life and the vow
34. Dighanikaya, vol. I, Brahmajälasutta.
35.
Suyagalanga with the commentary of Śilanka, Agamodaya Samiti, Bombay, 1917, pp. 208 ff, SBE, XLV, p. 315; S.B. Deo, op. cit., p. 64.
See Kalpasūtra, SBE, vol. XXII, p. 217-270; Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruş acaritra, Eng. tr. published in GOS, Nos. 51, 77; Hira Lal Jain, op. cit., Chapter I.
36.