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Introduction
xvii
occurs in the ancient Sramaņa literature. He was the propounder of the niyativāda (predeterminism). According to it, what is destined to happen will certainly happen (yad bhāvyam tad bhavisyati). Even today, it is found deeply rooted in the hearts of many Indians.
Readers will find in this work (see p. 427 ff.) the brief summary of the revolutionary teachings of Mahāvīra. The possible points of his programme can be succinctly stated as follows:
To remove blind faith prevailing among the people, to dissipate the atmosphere of violence, to propagate the principle of non-violence and universal friendliness, to effect synthesis of various religions and philosophies through awakening power of discretion and reason, and to disseminate the very important teaching that one's happiness is in one's own hands and that those who seek happiness in wealth, prosperity and possession certainly fail to attain it. Real happiness is within us. Mahāvīra, the great saint, set aside Sanskrit, the language of the elite and pundits, and adopted Prakrit, the language of the people, to propagate his teachings, because thereby he wanted to spread Truth among the people at large. (Buddha followed the same path. There is great similarity between languages and gospels of both Mahāvīra and Buddha. We notice similar altruistic tendencies and similar teachings of universal good in the ancient Jaina and Buddhist works). Mahāvīra emphatically declared: 'The greater good a man does to himself and the more he purifies himself, the greater good he can do to others'l. Some glimpses of his noble teachings which we find in the Agamas, the Jaina canons, are presented in the closing part of this work. From this, readers will have some idea of his revolutionary, dynamic, sublime and elevating nature.
Mahāvīra was born in 599 B.C. And he died at the age of seventytwo. He was posterior to Pārsva, the penultimate Tirthankara of the current time-cycle. The historicity of Pārsva is proved by the modern historians and scholars. The event of Mahavira's death took place two hundred fifty
1. "Let him that would move the world, first move himself."-Socrates. 2. Dr. Guerinot writes: "There can no longer be any doubt that Pārsva was a historical
personage. According to the Jaina tradition he must have lived a hundred years and died 250 years before Mahāvīra. His period of activity, therefore, corresponds to the 8th century B.C. The parents of Mahavira were followers of the religion of Pārsva... There have appeared twenty-four prophets of Jainism. They are ordinarily called Tirthankaras. With the twenty-third Pārsvanatha we enter into the region of history and reality". [Introduction to his Essay on Jaina Bibliography).
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