Jain Journal 1974 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 32

170
JAIN JOURNAL
all modes of expression of the existence or non-existence of a thing, if it were anything transcendental or beyond human experience. And yet there is little doubt that Mahavira owed some of his conceptions to these very heretics, and formulated others under the influences of the day.29 For instance, the doctrine of Syādvāda is identically the same as the Saptabhanginaya of the Jaina. It was an ingenious way out of the maze of the Ajñānavāda assertions about existence and non-existence.
Amidst all these conflicting views of the Soul, Mahavira kept to the old Brahman idea of the Atman. He held that it was eternal, but that the Atman have only a limited space, instead of being co-extensive with the universe.
II. The Kriyāvāda, or the doctrine which teaches that the soul acts or is affected by acts'.
There is a story told of Siha, the general, a lay disciple of Nataputta in the sixth Khandhaka of the Mahāvagga. He wanted to pay Buddha a visit and went to ask Nataputta's leave. This was Nataputta's answer :
"Why should you, Siha, who believe in the result of actions (according to their moral merit), go to visit the Samana Gautama, who denies the result of action ? He teaches the doctrine of non-action; and in this doctrine he trains his disciples.'
This doctrine of Kriyāvāda was opposed by Buddha's bold teaching about Akriyāvāda, which said that 'the soul does not exist, or that it does not act, or is not affected by acts'. Here we recognize the teaching of the different schools of materialists, and in the Brahman philosophy of the Vedānta, Sārkhya, and Yoga schools of thought. Mahavira, on the other hand, agreed with the Vaiseșika and Nyāya schools of Brahman philosophy.
III. Annihilation of Karman
The teaching of Nigantha Nataputta on this point is thus described by Abhaya, a learned Buddhist :
He teaches the annihilation (by austerities) of the old Karman, and the prevention (by inactivity) of new Karman. When Karman 29 Cf. What Mahavira taught about the Kriyavada lower down.