Jaina Phraseclogy in Bhagavadgita

Author(s): K H Kamdar
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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122 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
is almost identical with #145 A (True knowledge) of the Jainas. Arjuna's HIE (Delusion) disappeared and Truth was realized by him (Efsaat). Jaina canonical literature is profuse with dialogues between Mahāvira and learned Brahmins like Gautama, Sudharmā, etc. who were his chief disciples and Skanda etc. in the Bhagavati and other Sūtras where the opponents are convinced of their Delusion and become conscious of (faa new conviction of true knowledge (afeler 29). They accepted conversion from Mahāvira who said : 79160 (as you please). The sūtras describe them as 37 darat (those who lived nearest to Mahāvīra). The word is upanişadic. Many of them immolated themselves on the Nipula summit at Rājagrha.
In verse 58 of the second Discourse, the Gità gives the famous instance of the tortoise contracting itself in water, just as the man of 951 (wisdom) withdraws his senses from all objects. The same illustration is found in the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra.
Merutungācārya has repeated several phrases of the Gita in his immortal Bhaktămara-Sutra, as for instance Straat in the 9th verse of the eighth Discourse, get fast qi 77 in the 18th verse of the eleventh Discourse, also 959: YTT: fasury 9 FH in verse 38 of the same Discourse. Such illustrations can be multiplied.
I have tried to bring out in this contribution the salient parallelisms between the phraseology of the Gită and Jainism. The parallels are easily explained. There was, in the age when the two literatures appeared on the scene of Indian thought, a common background for Jaina, Buddhistic and Brahmanical philosophical beliefs. Brahmins were the great co-ordinators of the rich culture of the age. In this adventure they borrowed freely from their rivals, the Jainas and the Buddhists, whose thought influenced the moral and ethical, as also the philosophical systems of the age. The culture was pre-eminently synthetic and elastic. It was tolerant. It could absorb successfully the best that was contained in the various systems.
I might be permitted to make one observation. Words like TH, 37TH etc. have been defined and explained in various commentaries by Jainas, Buddhists and Upanişadic scholars. It is suggested that we made a comparative study of the commentaries. I am informed that a comparative study of the commentaries on Kālidāsa's Meghadūta has been made recently in some Indian Universities. It is high time that similar effort be made in the direction of the study of commentaries of Jaina, Buddhistic and Brahmanical terminologies.