Lord Mahavira Vol 02

Author(s): S C Rampuria
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

Page 56

Lord Mahâvîra His Teachings
regions. And there he had to suffer hardships. Even the dogs were set free on him. Nobody allowed him to enter the village for his begging. All this he endured without hatred or anger and with compassion towards those people.
As he was naked he was exposed to scorching heat, biting cold and heavy rains. This was not all. He had to suffer the bites of mosquitoes etc.
Those were the unpleasant harassment but scmetimes he had to suffer the so-called pleasant harassment. When in deep meditation he was invited by some ladies for amourous sports and on receiving no reply they would harass him with unpleasant rebuke and some times they would beat also.
This was his real fight with the Mara. And he came out victorious. If we take into account this picture of his ascetic life there is no possibility of his having a pupil in the person of Gosala whom Bhagavati mentions as his pupil.
Later authors have added many incidents of his ascetic life in his life story when it passed through the second and the third stages of development. It will not be out of place if we give some of them here.
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In Bhagavati (15) Mahâvîra himself narrates his relation with Gosala who became the leader of the Ajivikas. Scholars have their own doubts about this narrative. We may leave aside the question as to who was the teacher and who was the pupil between them. But this much we can say that both of them lived together for several years. Because both of them became the heads of their own orders, we should accept that in their own way they were great spiritual leaders in those days. And so each one of them must have influenced the other. In this story, we come across several informative statements which can be taken as true. Regarding the philosophical views we are not concerned here but it must be said that this story is considered to be the main source for our knowledge of the doctrines of the Ajivikas as no original Ajivika work is extant. Further we find the mention of the death of Gosala which took place before that of Mahâvîra. And it is stated that even after the death of Gosala Mahâvîra lived for about fourteen years. Both of them met for the first time in Nalanda when Mahâvîra was staying there for his second monsoon. And they were together for six years.