Mahavira Life and Philosophy

Author(s): Sumeruchand Diwakar Shastri
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 82

68
My
way of life. During this period Lord Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Jain Tithankara, whom the ignorant people call the founder of Jainism, was living. Perhaps Lord Mahavira's teachings had influenced the people of far off countries.
In his book, The Magic of Numbers, E. T. Bell (P. 87) tells that once Pythagoras saw a citizen beating his dog with a stick, whereupon the merciful philosopher shouted, "Stop beating that dog. In his howls of pain I recognise the voice of a friend......For such a sin as you are committing he is now the dog of a harsh master. By the next turn the wheel of birth may make him the master and you the dog. May he be more merciful to you than you are to him. Only thus can he escape the wheel. In the name of Apollo, my father, stop or I shall be compelled to say on you the ten-fold curse of the Teteractyas." This reveals the effect of Jainism.
The comparative study of religious literature has led many a scholar to recognise the influence of the twenty-third Jain Tirthankara Lord Parsvnath upon the then prevailing Vedic sages of the Upanishadic period. The great Jain saint Samanatbhadra in his book of the second century after Christ speaks that the recluses, who lived in the forests were influenced by Omniscient Lord Parsvnath and they took shelter under the Lord for Enlightenment and Internal peace 'वनौकसा तपोधनाः शरणं प्रपेदिरे'.
The epigraphical evidence also proves the great influence of Jain thought in B. C. days. Rai Bahadur