Jain Journal 1979 07

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

Page 37

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yatha sukham (as you please). The Sutras describe them as antevāsi (those who lived nearest to Mahavira). The word is Upanisadic. Many of them immolated themselves on the Vipula summit at Rajagrha.
JAIN JOURNAL
In verse 58 of the second Discourse, the Gitā gives the famous instance of the tortoise contracting itself just as the man of prajñā (wisdom) withdraws his senses from all objects. The same illustration is found in the Uttaradhyayana Sutra.
Merutungacarya has repeated several phrases of the Gita in his immortal Bhaktamara-Sutra, as for instance adityavarṇam in the 9th verse of the eighth Discourse, tramasya viśvasya param nidhānam in the 18th verse of the eleventh Discourse, also puruṣah purāṇa viśvasya param nidhanam in verse 38 of the same Discourse. Such illustrations can be multiplied.
I have tried to bring out in this contribution the salient parallelisms between the phraseology of the Gita and Jainism. The parallels are easily explained. There was, in the age when the two literatures appeared on the scene of Indian thought, a common background for Jaina, Buddhistic and Brahmanical philosophical beliefs. Brahmins were the great co-ordinators of the rich culture of the age. In this adventure they borrowed freely from their rivals, the Jainas and the Buddhists, whose thought influenced the moral and ethical, as also the philosophical systems of the age. The culture was pre-eminently synthetic and elastic. It was tolerant. It could absorb successfully the best that was contained in the various systems.
I might be permitted to make one observation. Words like subha, aśubha, etc. have been defined and explained in various commentaries by Jainas, Buddhists and Upanisadic scholars. It is suggested that we made a comparative study of the commentaries. I am informed that a comparative study of the commentaries on Kalidasa's Meghaduta has been made recently in some Indian Universities. It is high time that similar effort be made in the direction of the study of commentaries of Jaina, Buddhistic and Brahmanical terminologies.
Some time back the reformist Jaina monk, Muni Sri Sanatabala wrote on Jaina thought in the Gita. My contribution strikes a different note.
I have detected even semetism in the Gita as for instance in verse 7 of the ninth Discourse: sarvabhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtim yānti māmi