Book Title: Jain Itihas Series 01
Author(s): B Benarsidass
Publisher: B Benarsidass

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Page 60
________________ ( 51 ) In Samkhya Karika it is not only the slaughter of animals in Yajna which is forbidden, but also the throwing of seeds in the fire. It seems the Samkhyas too like the Jains prohibited the destruction of seeds. In Mahabharata too in many places ancient Ri shis are said to have been of opinion Mahabharata. that Ahimsa Dharma was the true Dharma. One of the most pathetic of the references to the Ahimsa Dharma in this holy work is the dialogue between Tula Dhara, a Vanikputra, and Jajali, a Brahman, in the Moksha Dharma of the Shanti Parva. Jajali had done tapa for a long time, and had grown too proud. The Rakshasas and the Pishachas informed him that even Tula Dhara who was a greater tapasvi was not so proud as he. Jajali went to Benares to hold debate with Tula Dhara and the latter said "O Jajali, you have done tapa for a long time, still you do not know what true Dharma is." He then explained Ahimsa to be the essence of a true Dharma. If Jajali doubted it, he might ask the birds in his pig-tail as to what the truth was. Jajali having put the question, the birds with one voice exclaimed that. Ahimsa was the essence of a true Dharma and bore good fruits in this and in the next world. “Ahimsa withholds all faith from the man who practises it and brings destruction upon him. A person who causes fear to no creature is fearless of all. But one, who produces fear like a serpent in a house, does not find Dharma in this and in the next Loka." Tula Dhara further said that Raja Nahusha had killed a bullock

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