Mahavira His Life and Teachings

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

Page 85

78 MAHĀVĪRA : HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS
6) Just as the earth, though it is but one pile, presents many forms, so ātman, the self, appears under various forms as the universe ?
All these views are again reduced to just four main types that correspond to those associated in the Pāli Nikāyas with four leading thinkers of the time, viz atheism, like that of Ajita; eternalism, like that of Kātyāyana ; absolutism, like that of Kāśyapa ; and fatalism, like that of Gośāla.
The first type is represented thus
The ātman is a living individual, a biological entity The whole self lives and lasts as long as the body, it does not outlast the destruction of the body. With the body ends life When it has been consumed by fire, only dove-coloured bones remain, and the four bearers return with the hearse to their village Therefore, there is and exists no soul apart from the body, those who believe it speak the truth
The second type stands as follows.
The five substances with the soul as the sixth are not created, directly or indirectly. They are without beginning and end. They always produce effects through an intermixture, and are independent of a directing cause or everything else. They
1 Sūtrakrtānga, I, 1 I 9