Most Ancient Aryan Society

Author(s): Ram Chandra Jain
Publisher: Institute of Bharatalogical Research Sriganganagar Rajasthan

Page 81

( 54 ) 5. There should be no attachment to agreeable and
disagreeable tastes. 6. There should be no attachment to agreeable and
disagreeable touches. 7. A Nirgrantha should not accept food more in
quantity than required. These five tenets or Pañcha-Mahāvratas are ordained for a Nirgrantha, a Muni, a Saint. He shall follow the precepts of non-violence, truth, non-stealing, continence and non-attachment in totality without any exception in any condition at any time or place whatsoever. But every member of the society can not become a Saint. Ordinary householders cannot completely follow this path. They may tread a part of it but the path is the same. A householder follows these tenets in diluted forms. We have seen many more tenets being followed by the Egyptians and the Sumerians. Non-cruelty to cattle, birds and fish; bringing not tears and suffering to others; falsification of weights and measures ; adultery and sexual pollution ; robbery, avarice and covetousness; reviling, puffing and blaspheming; and many more such other tenets, followed by Egyptians and the Sumerians, are only lower forms of one or the other of the above Five Supreme Tenets or Great Vows. The Spiritual precepts were practised in totality without exception in Bhārata. The ordinary citizens followed Smaller Vows or Annvratas38 just like the Egyptians and the Sumerians.
We, thus, find that the basic spiritual way of the people inhabiting the region was founded upon the basic doctrines of non-violence, truth, non-stealing, continence and non-possessiveness. This basic way increased the everprogressive free spirit of the person. The man is inherently