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have done evil in the past. This ye do wear away by this hard and painful course of action. And the discipline that here and now, by thought, word, and deed, is wrought, is a minus quantity of bad Karma in the future life............ thus all karma will eventually be worn away, and all pain. To this we assent" (Majjhima il 214 ff; cf. I._238). --The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics vol. II. p. 70.
Here Buddha clearly refers to (1) Paramatman Mahavira, (2) the Jaina creed and (3) most important of all the Jaina claim that Paramatman Mahavira was all knowing. And it was not mere idle curiosity unproductive of tangible results that'led Buddha to seek an ivterview with the Nigantha (Jainas). He was fired by the ambition to acquire that all-wisdom which he had seen in Paramatman Mahavira. His whole life thereafter was moulded accordingly. When enfeebled by tapas which did not lead to the sought for Enlighteument he said :
"Not by this bitter course of painful hardships shall I arrive at that separate and supreme vision of all-sufficing noble (Aryan) knowledge passing human ken. Might there be 'not another path to enlightenment?"-— Encyclopaedia R.andE, Vol.ll. p. 70.
These extracts furnish conclusive evidence of the following facts:
(i) That Paramatman Mahavira was a real historical being and not a myth;;
(ii) That He was contemporary of Buddha ;
(iii) That the claim as to the omniscience of Paramatman Mahavira was openly made by the Jainas whose religion tcaches that every soul is endowed with potential omniscience which is fully developed when it is about to obtain nirvana ;
(iv) That Buddha was fired by the example of the Jilendra to acquire that Wisdom which he describes in the most glowing terms as that separate and supreme vision of all-sufficing noble (Aryan) knowledge, passing human ken;
(v) That Buddha knew that it could be acquired by tapas and performed severe austerities for its acquisition ; and
(oij That tipas leading to no useful result in his case, he
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