Jain Journal 2008 01 No 03

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

Page 28

132
JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLII, NO.3 JANUARY. 2008
Besides stories illustrating the idea of tolerance, Umāsvāti (bet. 3rd and 5th cent. A.D.) in his Tattvarthasutra has propounded the essence of tolerance in his famous aphorism - parasparopagraho jīvānām (v.21) "Live and let live" which tells us that every living being should live together without harming each other. The idea of Umāsvāti is that it is not enough to say that one should live in this world by any means, but one should live together without harming anybody. It is in a sense a revolt against the conception of matsyanyaya or "survival of the fittest". Umāsvāti's motto is - you live and let others live. On this sūtra the commentator Pujyapāda says that "it is mutual help between the master and the servant, the teacher and the taught. The master renders help to the servants by giving them money. And they serve their master by doing him good and protecting him from evil. The preceptor teaches what is good here and in the next world (birth) and makes his disciples follow his teachings. And the disciples benefit their preceptor by their devoted service. What is the purpose of the repetition of the word upagraha? It indicates that living beings are also the cause of pleasure and pain, and life and death of one another." (S.A. Jain, ibid, p. 147).
Here in this connection I might cite some examples of tolerance or otherwise known as seculiarism, from the pages of history. In the history of Gujarat, some of the Jain kings, Vastupāla, for example, in the 13th century A.D. practised tolerance to all sorts of religious beliefs. What is securliarism to day, was also practised by Vastupāla at that time. One verse from the Puratattva-prabandha-samgraha shows how Vastupala was honoured by all sorts of religious people. The verse runs thus:
bauddhair bauddho vaiṣṇavair viṣṇubhaktaḥ saivaiḥ śaivo yogibhir yoga-rangaḥ/
jainais tāvajjaina eveti kṛtvā sattvädhāraḥ stuyate vastupālaḥ //
"Vastupāla, the depositor of strength, is praised in this way by the Buddhists as Buddha, by the Vaisnavas as a devotee of Visņu, by the Śaivas as Śiva, and by the Yogis as a devotee of yoga, and also by the Jains as a Jina."