Lord Mahavira and His Teachings

Author(s): Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 89

Lord Mahavira and His Teachings
nişads, is now beyond doubt. Even the name of Neminātha, the 22nd Tirthankara, was found on a copperplate, which authorizes the historians of Ancient India to accept the probability of the existence of pre-historic Tirtharkaras, however fantastic the chronology attributed by Jaina mythology seems to the scientific mind.
The historic existence of two Jaina Orders at the time of the Buddha has been verified; both had preceded Buddhism as monastic institutions. The Order founded by Mahāvīra was a simple organizational reform reorganizing the Order of Pārsva. The Jaina communities were long divided and still quarrel about the authenticity of their sects.
Both Mahāvīra and Buddha were princes of the ksatriya tribes, in révolt against the privileges of the Brahmin priesthood. Jainism represents the first social revolution in Indian history, opening the gates of knowledge to the ordinary people, accepting in the Sangha whoever was willing to submit to the severe discipline of the Order. The Buddha himself must have experimented with the Jaina discipline of selfmortification during the years of meditation under the Bodhi Tree, before proclaiming the Middle Path as the way to Enlightenment between self-torture and pleasure-seeking.
: The essential difference between Jainism and Buddhism is just this extreme severity which Mahāvīra has imposed upon the monks of his order, who must renounce all pleasures and live a life of total abstention from every point of view. They