Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Bool Chand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

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for some time. Such an opinion is clearly unfounded for if Gosala had ever been Mahavira's teacher, it is presumable that the. Buddhist texts would have at least recorded something to that effect, and anyhow Gosala would have put forward that claim when he visited Mahavira to upbraid him for calling him his own disciple. Thus, even if the Bhagavati version of the relationship between Mahavira and Gosala be not accepted, à reversal of that relationship cannot sure!y. be accepted at all. That the Bhagavati account may be somewhat exaggerated is warranted by the fact that neither in the Acharanga not in the Kalpa-Sutra is there any mention of Gosala. It may also be mentioned that the Digambara accounts of Mahavira's life also do not refer to his contact with Gosala. What appears on the basis of ava lable materials to be well-founded is that Mahavira and Gosala did not have a teacher and disciple relationship at all. It is highly doubtful that Mahavira had started taking disciples before his attainment of Enlightement, Mahavira and Gosala were just two associates in a common concern, to sadhakas who lived together for six years in asceticism. Later on there sprang up acute differences of opinion between the two. They separated from each other and became irreconcilable opponents, fighting out their differences generally through their followers.