Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
in a village called Saravana. Before his meeting with Mahāvīra, he maintained himself by the profession of a markha. According to Buddhaghoșa, he was a runaway slave.
It is not known why and how this bard resorted to asceticism. In the third year of the ascetic life of Mahāvīra, Gośāla joined him and they lived together for six years. But then arose ideological differences and the mental gulf between the two could not be bridged. Gośāla left Mahāvīra and declared himself to be a Tirthamkara. He had made his headquarters at Srāvastī in the workshop of a potter-woman called Hālāhālā. Like the Buddha and Mahāvíra he travelled from place to place, in towns and villages, preaching and gathering converts.
Sixteen years thereafter, the two teachers met once again and had hot exchange of words. Mahāvīra charged Gośāla for his treacherous behaviour as a disciple, and the same charge was labelled against Mahāvīra by Gośāla also. According to the Jain texts, Gośāla was a renegade disciple of Mahāvīra, although circumstantial eviderce, for the lack of the Ājivika scriptures, suggests otherwise. Mahāvīra in the third year of his ascetic life was still a novice and it was natural for him to stay with a teacher. Gośāla who was going to declare himself a Tīrthamkara, and who was senior to Mahāvīra in age could stay for a long period of six years only with his disciple. There are also grounds to show that some of the ideas and practices of the Jains were due to Ājīvika influence. It appears that the main cause of the difference between Gośāla and Mahāvīra was the former's insistence upon the doctrines of Niyati or Fate and Akriyā or non-action to which Mahāvīra was not ready to contribute.
In fact Gośāla became a pure fatalist. The conclusions at which he arrived regarding life and universe are summed up as follows, though in a distorted way, in the Buddhist Sāmaññaphala Sutta. “There is neither cause nor basis for the sins of living beings; they become sinful without cause or basis. Neither is there cause or basis for the purity of living beings; they become pure without cause or basis. There is no deed performed either by oneself or by others (which can affect one's future births), no human action, no strength, no courage, no human endurance or human prowess (which can affect one's destiny in this life). All beings, all that have breath, all that are
all that have life, are without power, strength, or virtue, but are developed by destiny, chance, and nature, and experienc sorrow in the six classes (of existence)...There is no question of bringing unripe Karma to fruition, nor of exhausting Karma already