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The Path of Arhat : A Religious Democracy
and consciousness always go together. Mahāvīra's theory of karma is the theory of dynamism. To understand how he secured the dynamism during the process of synthesis of different prevailing theories, it would first be necessary to have a bird's eye view of these theories.
Those philosophers, who believed that a human being is totally free to select his own path of good or evil, are known as 'Yadịcchāvādi'. In the west they are known as the exponents of 'free-will. But those who held a contrary belief and asserted that man is not free to choose his path because everything is pre-destined, were known as "Niyativadi', i. e., determinists. Both the philosophers were found to be taking extreme stands. In real life, we often find that some persons who have chosen their own path toil for the whole life, but are faced with unexpected obstacles and never succeed, while others with very little effort achieve success which they otherwise do not deserve on merits. When we see such instances, we feel that the theory of free-will lacks something which remains unexplained However, the theory of ‘Niyativāda' which means the theory of determinism totally rules out man's own efforts as according to this theory the man is made absolutely a victim of some unknown reason which seals his fate.
Gosala's Niyativada – In Mahāvīra's early years of penances Gośāla who was subsequently known as a great and authoritative exponent of 'Niyativada' (determinism ) moved as a self-proclaimed disciple of Mahavira as he was greatly attracted by Mahāvīra's penances. Though Mahavīra never accepted him as his disciple, he moved with Mahāvira wherever he went and also practiced severe penances. During this period, he remained a great admirer of Mahavira, but created sometimes very awkward situations. During his period of penances the attitude of Mahavira was merely to suffer in silence without any protest and to move and do, whatever he thought would be proper for him. So when Gošala constantly followed him everywhere, he did not object. This was
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