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L. A. PHALTANE
lee
understanding of Lord Mahavira. It appears that Lord Mahavira took advantage of all those happenings outside the borders of Aryavarta and introduced them in this country adding to them His principles of Non-violence (Ahimsa), non-attachment (Aparigrapha) and Syädvada and thus raised Aryavarta far above the level of the adjoining countries. Unless this is so construed how can the long period of twelve years of His penance and austerities be explained? His disciples, being altogether ignorant of His previous preparation and what was going on outside this country looked upon Him with astonishment and wonder when they noticed the numerous activities emanating, as if, by magic from Him and in the midst of which He remained altogether unattached and took Him to be omniscient He appeared to have discouraged the ancient and time-honoured system of yakshas and encouagred the orders of Shramanas and Yatis The Shramanas were required to approach every layman who was to be actually taught by them by taking pains (shrama to take pains) and Yatış were Baddled with the duty of raising the standard of the householders (yat to strive).
His emblem was lion. This was perhaps the indication that the non-violence which He preached was the non-violence of the brave and not of the
coward.
It has already been remarked above that before Lord Mahavira
3
arisen
and Gautama Buddha began their preaching, there had several teachers who had their own schools. Each of those teachers had his theories about soul, God, matter, predestination etc. many of which looked most inconsistent and apparently mutually destructive. Gautama Buddha appeared to have got tired of the intricacies adn delicacies of those theories and exhorted his disciples not to worry about those theories and asked them to focus their attention on Man and on the question as to how Man can be made happier His was a religion of a kind of nescience Lord Mahavira, on the other hand, approached those theories from the Syadwada point of view and without destroying or ignoring any of them He-collected together the best of them all and built his edifice of allsided religion. He gave Syadwada mode of reasoning to the world.
Full and complete knowledge based on right faith and translated into right conduct coupled, at the same time, with complete non-attachment to non-soul matters was considered by Lord Mahavira as a condition precedent for the final release of the soul from the bondage of worldly life: while notions regarding soul, matter, universe &c. appearing in the Buddhistic canons being dubious and uncertain, the Buddhist school does not appear to bave considered that complete non-attachment to worldly matters was essential for the attainment of Nirwana or final beatitude.
