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sects were included in one's own scriptures with due esteem and honour. Evidently, it indicates the latitudinarian and unprejudiced outlook of the earliest Jaina thinkers. We also have a reference to religious tolerance in the Vyākyā prajñapti, one of the early works of the Jainas, when an old friend of Gautama, who was initiated in some other religious sect, came to visit him, Bhagwan Mahāvīra commanded Gautama to welcome him and Gautama did so. According to Uttaradhyayana, when Gautama, the chief disciple of Mahāvīra and Kesi, a prominent pontiff of Pārsvanatha's sect met at Kosambi, both paid due regard to each other and discussed the various problems dispassionately and in gentle and friendly manner about the differences of both the sects.
Acarya Haribhadra has not only maintained this latitudinarian outlook of earlier Jainacāryas, but lent new dimension to it. He was born in the age when the intellectuals of the India were engaged in hair-splitting philosophical discussions and in relentless criticism of one other. Though he also critically evaluated the other philosophical and religious systems, his outlook was fully liberal and attempted to see the truth of his opponent's logic also.
In the Sastravarta-Samuccaya, which is one of the foremost works illustrating Haribhadra's liberal outlook, it is mentioned that the great saint, venerable Lord Buddha preached the doctrine of momentariness (Ksanikavāda), non-existence of soul (Anātmavāda), idealism (Vijñānavāda) and nihilism (Sunyavāda) with a particular intention to vanish the mineness and desire for worldly objects and keeping in view the different levels of mental development of his followers, like a good physician who prescribes the medicine according to the disease and nature of the patient.
He has the same liberal and regardful attitude toward Sankhya and Nyaya schools of Bhrahmanical philosophy. He
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