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२: मुनि श्रीहजारीमल स्मृति ग्रन्थ
family, both Mahāvira and Pārśva were imbued with a philosophic outlook on life and therefore in the very early stages of their life, they took to renunciation; and leaving behind the princely life of pleasures took to the forest to practise hard authorities, at the end of which they got Kevalajnäna or Perfect knowledge. In the light of this Kevalajnāna they formulated the form of new Religion with its basic principle of Ahimsā, which they began to preach, themselves living up to the ordeals of the ascetic life demanded by its doctrines and thus serving as perfect examples of what they taught. Like Buddha, the Magadha country was the centre of their religious propaganda; and Mahavira wandered from place to place enlightening the people by his sermons delivered in their own language viz. Ardha-māgadhi. Severe privations of hunger and thirst, heat and cold, he suffered. At times, he was beaten and belaboured by the angry and misguided masses who did not tolerate an attack on their religion. He was reviled and ridiculed, spat upon and kicked, but he never raised even his little finger in resistence. A perfect incarnation of Non-violence and Passive Resistence indeed! In his sermons he taught how highly valuable was this human life which should be utilised in securing Emancipation instead of indulging in the transitory baneful pleasures of the sense. “Leave off this worldly life, become a monk and observe the Religion of the Five Vows; (1) Do not kill or injure any living Being, (2) Never depart from Truth in your speech and action. (3) Do not take anything which is not given to you. (4) Observe a strictly pure life of celibacy and (5) Have no possessions except the religious requisites like the broom or the almsbowl. Practise severe penance, curb the Kaşāyas or Passions, and destroy the Karmic matter which has thickly accumulated in the Soul and has thus prevented Right Knowledge. Then you will be free from this Samsāra or the migratory life and will enjoy perfect bliss and knowledge in the land of the Liberated !" This was the message of Lord Mahāvīra with which he approached the masses in the halo of his spiritual glory, and converted them to his new Faith. He reorganised and established the new order of monks on a sounder basis to which the laity was added later on, and thus it became a chaturvidha Samgha or Fourfold Order, in which figured the monks and nuns on the one hand, and the Laymen and the Laywomen on the other. Jainism, is, however, essentially a religion for monks, as it promises Emancipation only after the renunciation of life. A householder can reach only the first few stages of the spiritual development, after which he must cut off all worldly ties to become a monk and to secure further development of the Soul leading up to Mokşa. The continuity of this Order has been maintained through an endless succession of disciple-monks to this present day and it must be said to the credit of Jainism that it has been able to present to the world even today, a very well-disciplined and pure Order of Sädhus who live the Religion in its austere rigour of all the details that characterise the daily life of a monk. The Jain Order came to be divided later on into two prominent sects, viz. the Svetambaras and Digambaras, with a third one of the Sthānakavāsis. In spite of these schisms, however, this religion has maintained its compactness and solidarity, and having been able to possess a wealthy community among its adherents, it can hold up its head among the progressive religions of the world. The Jain Philosophy : The philosophy of Jainism may be briefly told as follows :-- The world is uncreated and exists from the beginning-less Time. It consists of Jiva and Ajiva
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