Mahavira his Times and his Philosophy of Life

Author(s): Harilal Jain, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 59

they stand before us as two distinct personalities who have left an abiding influence on the history of Indian thought. Buddha, it has to be noted, experimented with many teachers prior to his enlightenment, and discovered the Middle Path, after rejecting much of the religious thought current round about him. That was not the case with Mahāvīra. The religion preached by Vrşabha, Neminātha and his immediate predecessor Pārsva (who flourished just a couple of centuries before Mahāvira) was already inherited by him and he presented it for contemporary society. Buddha is less compromising with the creeds of his contemporaries, because he started with the conviction that he had personally discovered something new for humanity. But Mahāvīra was more accommodating and compromising and quite willing to understand the point of view of others, primarily because he was preaching an earlier religion, maybe for a slightly different order of monks and laymen. 'It is evident', as Jacobi has remarked, 'that both Mahāvīra and Buddha have made use of the interest and support of their families to propagate their Order. Their prevalence over other rivals was certainly due in some degree to their connection with the chief families of the country'. Buddha had a longer lease of life: he lived for full eighty years, while Mahāvīra lived only 72 years. The middle path of Buddha struck a note of novelty and inspired so much enthusiasm among his new followers that its influence spread far and wide. Mahāvīra, however, had to preach both to old and new followers, and obviously he must have been guided by a spirit of compromise; the question of new recruits was not with him as urgent as it was with Buddha. There is evidence, further confirmed by close similarity between Jaina and Buddhist monastic rules, that Buddha did try the nirgrantha way of living for a while, obviously the one preached long before by Pārsvanātha. As observed by Jacobi 'Nigamthas (nirgranthas), now better known under the name of Jainas or Arhatas, already existed as an important sect at the time
58