Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 203

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ADRIS BANERJI
That Mahāvīra and Buddha two kșatriyas did become successful religious leaders, opened the way for further social reforms, not properly analysed in the social organizations that existed over the chaos that represented the decadent Vedic socio-religious conditions. If Ksatriyas could preach religions then why not the Sudras wear the purple (that is become royalties)? And, this is what happened, in Magadha, when Nandas ascended the throne of Magadha. Prācya deśa (Eastern India) by all accounts had become vast crucible of race admixture and culture complex. The next logical step was taken by Lord Mahāvīra to bring about a more disciplined existence based upon ahimsā and self-attainment by self-dedication. He was not merely an aspirant to ultimate knowledge, but, taught the way to attain the same by the masses, by rules of behaviour for the secular householder or laity, but also by an emphasis on austere asceticism, The moribund materialism and useless gory sacrifices of Vedic ritual was not merely attacked, but its uselessness exposed. The Aryans being numerically inferior, prohibited asceticism in youth encouraging production of progeny for their preservation, but the asceticism preached by Mahāvīra struck at its very root because, he realized that a life of parigraha-parimāna, the dangers of 'desire', in a materialistic world, vrata, nirjarā belief in Karma-phala, which has totally disappeared from our population, leading to the present murderous conflicts, are the ways by which the society can be preserved. The inequalities amongst men which caused all the trouble and sense of frustration was preached not in the 19th Century Europe but by Lord Mahāvīra in the centuries before the birth of Christ.
The ascetic ideal of Lord Mahāvīra was based upon the supreme knowledge, that while the five anuvratas were sufficient for the secular homes; long training, dedication to the cause of salvation, by the doctrine complete renunciation of all worldly things, was imperative and should not be resorted to only in old age (vānaprastha). To day we are living in a world of mad lust of power, greed, murder and massaccre. But his supreme self did anticipate these conditions in a society which in our egotism