Kesarimalji Surana Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia, Dev Kothari
Publisher: Kesarimalji Surana Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 1239

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MAHĀVĪRA AND AHIMSA*
Dr. D. S. KOTHARI Ex-Chairman, University Grants Commission
In Indian life and thought the principle of ahiṁsā or non-violence has always held the central place. Lord Mahavira said two thousand five hundred years ago : The first and supreme duty of man, his dharma, is ahinsa. It is to observe non-violence in word, thought and deed. Mahāvīra proclaimed and preached what he practised. His message and his life were in complete accord. The two were identical.
In man's unceasing quest for ahimsā, Mahāvira, the 24th Jaina Tirthankara, the Englightened one, stands as one of the greatest landmarks, an abiding source of light, inspiration and courage. He was not the founder of the Jaina religion which to a limited extent was prevalent in the country much before his time.
Mahāvira's philosophy, His Teachings and Example is more relevant today than ever before. Ahimsa and Satyagraha go together and are inseparable, as Gandhiji always emphasised. Without progress in Ahirnså man has no future in the atomic age. Even his survival may be at stake. Man now faces himself. He can destroy all life on this planet or can open up new vistas of cultural, social and spiritual development. This is the path of science and ahimsā, the two mutually re-inforcing. “There is a growing synthesis between humanism and the scientific spirit, resulting in a kind of scientific humanism," as Nehru said in "The Discovery of India' page, 493. What is important is to recognize that with the emergence of the human mind the nature of biological evolution has undergone a profound change--a qualitative change. The course of organic evolution depends now more on man himself than on anything else. That makes ahinsa (non-violence) the primary law of human development.
Mahāvira was the contemporary of the Buddha (624-544 B. C.). He was born at Vaiśāli, in Bihār, in a family related to the great Bimbisāra (or Sreņika), the king of Magadha. He lived to the age of 72. The date of his death or Nirvāna is generally believed to be the Diwali day, 527 B. C., that is 2500 years ago. The name of His father was Siddhartha, and of His mother Trśalā Devi. According to the Swetāmbera tradition, but not accepted by the Digambaras, Mahāvira was married to Yasoda and had a daughter.
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• Radio Talk, November 13, 1974. 1 Some historians bejieve that Buddha attained Nirvana in 484 B. C. and Mahāvina in 482.