Jainism in North India

Author(s): Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London

Page 50

MAHAVIRA AND HIS TIMES himself for hope or aid. The nation was prepared when he began to preach, for his spiritualism was understood and appreciated, and gradually even the Brahmans recognised him as a great teacher. "Intellectual Brahmans also joined the ranks of Jainas as of Buddhists from time to time owing to conviction as well as for honour, and contributed to the maintenance of the reputation of the Jainas for learning." 2
Jainism spread slowly among the poor and the lowly, for it was then a strong protest against caste privileges. It was a religion of equality of man. Mahăvira's righteous soul rebelled against the unrighteous distinction between man and man, and his benevolent heart hankered for a means to help the humble, the oppressed and the lowly. The beauty of a holy life, of a sinless, benevolent career, flashed before his mind's eye as the perfection of human destiny, as the heaven on earth; and, with the earnest conviction of a prophet and a reformer, he proclaimed this as the essence of religion. His world-embracing sympathy led him to proclaim this method of self-culture and holy living to suffering humanity, and he invited the poor and lowly to end their suffering by cultivating brotherly love and universal peace. The Brahman and the Sūdra, the high and the low, were the same in his eyes. All could equally effect their salvation by a holy life, and he invited all to embrace bus catholic religion of love. It spread slowly
as Christianity spread in Europe in early davs- until Srenika. Kūņika, Candragupta, Sampratı, Khāravela and others embraced Jainism during the first few glorious centuries of Hindu rule in India
Like Brahmanism, Jainism also is based on the so-called dogmas of the transmigration of the soul, and seeks for deliverance from the endless succession of rebirths. But it pronounces the Brahmanic penance and abstinences inadequate to accomplish this, and aims at attaining, not union with the universal spirt,5
a : w g TH, 7 a aut: fafent: ... rifienfa fast: wafata:..Kalpa-Sutra, Subodhiha-Tikā, pp 112, 118 ? Vaidya (C V), H.MI, 111, p 408
HrnH PETTERIH (Alay it be for the welfare and happiness of all creatures) -Buhler, EI, 1, pp 203, 204, Ins. No XVIII
4 " He for whom there is no bondage whatever in this world. etc, has quitted the path of birth "-Jacobi, S.BE, X1, p 218.
5 "There were two principal world theories in ancient India One, which was systematised as the Vedānta, teaches in its extreme formu that the soul and the universal spirit are identical and the external world an illusion " Elliot, op cit, 1, p 106
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