Path of Arhat

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Smarak Parshwanath Shodhpitha Varanasi

Page 40

Origins in Eternity
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founder of Jainism but now it is universally recognised that Sri Mahāvīra, unlike Śrī Buddha, was not the founder of any new religion. He was only a follower, who rejuvenated the whole thinking of the contemporary society by giving enlightened interpretations to the principles, already propounded by Sri Pārsva.
Śri Parsva was born to king Aśvasena of Kāśi ( modern Benaras ) and mother Vamadevi. Like Rşabha he also belonged to Ikşvāku race of Ksatriyas. He was married to Prabhāvati, the daughter of Prasenjit, the king of Kuśasthala.
Those were the days when severe religious penances were undertaken hy monks. Many of these penances were of acrobatic type and could hardly be endured by laity. Moreover, though śramaņa tradition of Ahimsă persisted among the monks who were practising austerities in forests the ordinary man of the world was not effectively touched by these principles. Pārsva systematized these principles, gave them practical shape and put before the public for their practice in day to day life. In other words, he established a code of conduct to be followed by those having renounced the world and also by the house-holders. He emphasised that the penances, aimed at tormenting physical senses without any inner development, carried no meaning. Therefore, he prescribed four ways of conduct known as Cāturyāma, comprising Ahinsa (non-violence ), Satya (truth ), Asteya (non-stealing) and Aparigraha (restriction of possessions ). These four principles together with the additional fifth Brahmacarya, the innovation of Mahavira, have formed the five basic principles of Jainism. Though these four principles were well known to Sramana line of thinking, it was Paršva who put them systematically before the public to be taken as a routine code of cond:ict. From his very youth Pārsva was a fervent advocate of these principles, even before he renounced the world and took to religious penances. While in princehood he came across a powerful Brahmin Tapas called Kamatha