Mahavira His Life and Teachings

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Luzac and Co UK

Page 70

TEACHINGS
utterances of one who saw the light of truth and was able to lead others along the path to truth. In all earnestness they sought to obey those words, both in the letter and in the spirit. In other words, those teachings of his were readily accepted by them as a means of satisfying their supreme religious need. But
The goal of their religious life, as we are informed in a Pāli Sutta, was sukha or infinite bliss, which was not to be measured by the finite happiness of mortals. So the main formula or aphorism of Mahāvira's teachings was : The infinite bliss is not reachable through the finite happiness of even so fortunate among men as the reigning monarchs, it is reachable only through dukkha or pain of foregoing and forsaking all finite happiness."
The formula suggests a twofold inquiry : one regarding the nature of the goal, and the other regarding the nature of the path The nature of the goal suggested is sukha or infinite bliss, and the implication is that it is attainable by human efforts And the nature of the path suggested is dukkha or pain of foregoing and forsaking all finite happiness, and the implication is that the path that leads to worldly happiness is not the path that leads to infinite bliss.,
• Majjhima-Nikaya, I, pp. 93-94.