Jain Journal 2001 07

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

Page 18

KANSARA: JAINISM, MAHĀVĪRA, BUDDHA AND NIRVĀŅA
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created, formed if there were not that unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, uninformed. His explanation of the Tathāgata, i.e. the one that is of that nature, or the perfect one, implies that it is not an ordinary being, its nature, is such that no predication can give full exhaustive description of its nature. Surely this does not mean non-being; it implies something positive. But as in the case of self (attā), the Buddha speaks about nirvana also mostly in negative terms or keeps silent. This has led the thinkers particularly in the west call him an agnostic on these issues. Nirvana is in fact conceived as so different from the material world, 'without beginning, without end'; a domain over which the law of causality has no power that it is called Nothing. What appears to be reasonable is that since nirvana is conceived as a goal, an ideal or the summum bonum by the Buddha, he must have understood by it something positive, something worth attaining, though he must have also grasped the difficulty of man giving an exhaustive and adequate expression to it with his finitude and limitations.31
The Non-self (anatta) theory in early Buddhism does not mean that the Buddha completely denied the significance of the self. On the contrary, he always admitted the significance of the self in a practical and moral sense as the subject of actions. The practical postulate in early Buddhism makes it clear that "one who knows the self" was highly esteemed therein.32 The virtue of relying upon oneself was also stressed considerably. In his own case he declared : "I have taken refuge to myself."33 The Buddha taught Ananda, his disciple, in his last sermon : "Be you lamps to yourselves. Be you a refuge to yourself. Betake yourself to no external refuge. Holu fast to the Truth as a lamp. Hold fast as a refuge to the Truth. Don't look for refuge to any one besides yourself."34
According to the Buddha, bad actions hurt oneself.35 The evil done by oneself, self-begotten, self-bread, crushes the foolish, as a diamond breaks a precious stone. 36 The foolish man bears fruit to his own
31. Chakravarty : op.cit., pp. 111-112. 32. Anguttara Nikaya, 4, p. 113; Digha Nikāya, 3. 252. 33. Digha Nikaya, 2. p. 120 gāthā: katama me saranam attano. 34. Mahāparinibbāna-suttam: Edited, with Hindi Translation, by Bhiksu
Kittimā of Barmi Bauddha Vihara, published by 0. Cozan, Akyäb (Burma), 1941, 77, p. 51 : Tasmat ih', Anandal atta-dipä viharatha atta
sarana anañña-sarana/Dhamma-dipā dhamma-saraņā anañña-sarana/ 35. Dhammapada, 163: ....asādhūni attano ahitani ca/ 36. ibid., 161 : Attanä'va katam papam attajam anasambhavam/
Abhimanthati dummedham vajiram 'va'smamayam manim//