Mahavira and his Teaching

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

Page 222

LORD MAHĀVĪRA AND HIS TEACHINGS
215 the delay in renunciation and formal initiation and the alms of the gold coins—must be pondered over. As Lord Mahāvīra has preached, alms, chastity, penance and devotion are the four pillars of religion. Of these, the first, the way of alms is the easiest and as easy as the cutting off of the external nail. To be a man of character is as difficult as the discarding of the necessary covering of the nail at the top of the finger. Penance is like the severance of the finger itself. Devotion is like the complete abstraction of soul and the relinquishing of all rights on the body. The transformation of the soul from the role of the sufferer into that of the spectator. This is, then, the most difficult of all. Those who cannot, without the desire of reward, help others lovingly, physically or by means of money or guidance can never attain blotless character. A man without character cannot do penance which comprises of labour for the general good, meditation and self study. Supreme devotion is again impossible without penance. Lord Mahāvīra, doubtless, wanted to emphasize this staging of religious attainment by his own example, and hence he began with the giving away of alms and then came to the stage of self-control. Even so, thwarted in his desire for complete renunciation by his elders, he did not practice selfcontrol till he succeeded in getting the consent of the elders, thus exposing the hypocrisy of the merely outward form of self-control.
At the age of thirty, Lord Mahāvīra renounced the world and was formally initiated. As a part of the discipline of the religious orders that he embraced, he plucked out his own hair. Though this would appear to be painful, the endurance, it is believed, symbolises religious introversion. The patriots who faught for the Indian independence used to sign the pacts of brotherhood by their own blood made to flow freely by self-injected sword wounds. The plucking of the hair is a similar test of endurance to be passed by those seeking initiation as a means of assurance that those who passed the test would not flinch at the moment of self-sacrifice for the religious uplift of the world. It does not mean that plucking out of hair leads to salvation. It only means that, without the endurance required to pluck one's