Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 583

122 SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
is almost identical with 8 (True knowledge) of the Jainas. Arjuna's (Delusion) disappeared and Truth was realized by him (d). Jaina canonical literature is profuse with dialogues between Mahavira and learned Brahmins like Gautama, Sudharma, etc. who were his chief disciples and Skanda etc. in the Bhagavati and other Sutras where the opponents are convinced of their Delusion and become. conscious of (a) a new conviction of true knowledge ( ज्ञान) - They accepted conversion from Mahavira who said: (as you please). The sutras describe them as aard (those who lived nearest to Mahavira). The word is upanisadic. Many of them immolated themselves on the Nipula summit at Rajagṛha.
In verse 58 of the second Discourse, the Gità gives the famous instance of the tortoise contracting itself in water, just as the man of (wisdom) withdraws his senses from all objects. The same illustration is found in the Uttaradhyayana Sútra.
Merutungācārya has repeated several phrases of the Gità in his immortal Bhaktamara-Sutra, as for instance anff in the 9th verse of the eighth Discourse, as if in the 18th verse of the eleventh Discourse, also पुरुषः पुराणः विश्वस्य परं निधानम् in verse 38 of the same Discourse. Such illustrations can be multiplied.
I have tried to bring out in this contribution the salient parallelisms between the phraseology of the Gitä and Jainism. The parallels are easily explained. There was, in the age when the two literatures appeared on the scene of Indian thought, a common background for Jaina, Buddhistic and Brahmanical philosophical beliefs. Brahmins were the great co-ordinators of the rich culture of the age. In this adventure they borrowed freely from their rivals, the Jainas and the Buddhists, whose thought influenced the moral and ethical, as also the philosophical systems of the age. The culture was pre-eminently synthetic and elastic. It was tolerant. It could absorb successfully the best that was contained in the various systems.
I might be permitted to make one observation. Words like , etc. have been defined and explained in various commentaries by Jainas, Buddhists and Upanisadic scholars. It is suggested that we made a comparative study of the commentaries. I am informed that a comparative study of the commentaries on Kalidasa's Meghadüta has been made recently in some Indian Universities. It is high time that similar effort be made in the direction of the study of commentaries of Jaina, Buddhistic and Brahmanical terminologies.