Jain Journal 1997 01

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

Page 23

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXI, No. 3 January 1997
assumes that this sinful history will come to an end, and an ideal world will begin to be created.
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Jainism Reviewed in the Context of the Unification View of History
The age around the 6-5th centuries B.C., when Mahavira was active, happened to be the age of Upanisads. It was the time when Vedic and non-Vedic philosophical or religious thoughts were deeply stimulated and flourished, in search of the nature of Brahman, Atman and the world for the purpose of attaining the way of salvation. It was an epochmaking period in ancient India when she was blessed with numerious Upanisadic sages and sophists, including Mahavira, Buddha and other śramaņas such as Carvāka, Sañjaya, Gośäla and Pakuda. A similar phenomenon occurred in Greece during the 6-5th centuries B.C., when many nature philosophers made their appearance, including Thales, Heraclitus, Empedocles and Democritus, along with Socrates and Plato, who were followed by Aristotle in the 4th century B.C. China was not an exception, for Confucius and Lao-tze lived probably in the 6-5th centuries B.C., who were then followed by Mo-tzu, Mencius, Chuangtzu and many others in the succeeding centuries called the golden age of philosophy. We should not also forget that Zoroasther was active in the 7-6th centuries B.C. in Persia.
K. Jaspers calls this period the axial era. But why did this phenomenon of world-wide spiritual awakeni ag take place during this particular period? This question has remained a mystery until the Unification Principle (the Divine Principle) offered an answer for it. According to it, God called Socrates in Greece, Buddha in India, and Confucious in China six centuries prior to sending Jesus Christ on earth. He called these spiritual leaders in the major domains of ancient civilization, so that they would lay spiritual foundations for receiving the Messiah coming at a later time. The Messiah was, had he not been put to the cross, expected to spread His gospel in the language of thoughts flourishing in these domains of civilization, and restore man and the world all at once.
Why did this happen, then, in the 6th century B.C., but not in the other centuries? It is said in Genesis that God created man on the sixth day. The 'sixth day' means here the 'sixth' period. This period of six applies also to the providence of re-creation, and God had to start a new providence six centuries prior to sending the Messiah. This law is called 'the law of the period of the number six'. A similar providence