Essence of Jainism

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Essence of Jainism
and other Nirgranthas as holding four great vows? This is a very natural question.
The reply to this question can be had from the Jaina Āgamas available then. Fortunate we are that we have, in the then available Āgamas, so many levels of ancient thought of the Nirgrantha tradition tbat enlighten us regarding the tradition itself as also the condition of the Nirgrantha tradition of the earlier Pārsvāpatyika, Āgamas like the Bhagavati and Uttarādhyana tell us: that many Pārsvapatyika Nigranthas, who were upholders of four great vows, accepted the preaching of Mahavira and adopted the five great vows as preached by Lord Mahavira He thus changed the older tradition of four great vows. However, there were some Pārsva. patyika Nirgranthas who continued the old tradition of four great Vows. One more historical problem is this. Why and when did Mahāvira establish five great vows in place of the old four ? The reply to this why' is given by the Jaioa works. They however, give no reply to the when '. Bhagavān Pārsvanātha had firmly established the four great vows of non-violence. truth, non-stealth and non-acceptance. But in due course, looseness crept in, in the Nirgrantha tradition. This looseness went to this extent that certain Nirgranthas confined the meaning of the word 'Aparigraha’ to *non collection, and kept contact with women even without collection or acceptance and believed that the vow of Aparigraha is not bruken thereby. Bhagavān Mahavīra wanted to remove this loose. ness and so established the vow of celibacy-Bhrahmacarya-independently of this Aparigraha and tried to purify the fourth vow thereby. It is not possible to state as to when, during the course of his sermonizing, he established the vow of Brahmacarya apart from Aparigraha. But the vow was laid down with so much of emphasis that the Nirarantha cult came to glorify the five great vows. Those Pārsvāpatyika Nirgranthas who remained aloof from the five great vows of Mahävira almost ceased to exist in no time. If the four great vows were not mentioned by the Bauddha Pitakas and the Jaina Āgamas, we would not have known that for a time this tradition upheld four vows. 1. The Mahavira Issue of 'Utthāna' (Sthanakavāsi Jain Conference, Bombay, P.46)