________________
BANERJEE : JAINISM AND NON-VIOLENCE
153
The greatest example of tolerance is the Paryusana parva of the Jains which is one of the finest festivals which leads people to the goal of tolerance and thereby maintains a friendship between men and men, and even between men and animals. Paryusaņa parva is normally held between the end of August and beginning of September of every year. At the end of the paryusaņa parva the kşamā-yācanā ceremony starts, and in that ceremony everybody craves indulgence of others to forgive. Everybody says to everybody the following verse.
khamemi savva-jive sauve jīvā khamantu me / metti me savva-bhūesu veram majjham na kenāvi //
"I pardon all the animals and let all the animals pardon me; I have friendship with all animals and I have no enmity with any body."
Some of the Jain kings, Vastupāla, for example, in Gujarāt, in the 13th century A.D., practised tolerance to all sorts of religious beliefs. What is secularism today, was also practised by Vastupāla at that time. One verse found in the Purātana-prabandha-samgraha shows how Vastupāla was honoured by all sorts of religious people :
bauddhair bauddho vaişnavair vişnubhaktaḥ, śaivaiḥ śaivo yogibhir yoga-rangaḥ / jainais tāvaj jaina eveti krtvā, sattvādhāraḥ stuyate Vastupālaḥ //
"Vastupala, the depositor of strength, is praised in this way by the Buddhists as Buddha, by the Vaisnavas as Vişnu, by the Saivas as Siva and by the Yogin as a devotee of yoga and also by the Jains as a Jina.
A similar type of verse says that the lord of the three worlds (Trilokanātha) is considered as the same by different religious people: The verse says
yam saivāḥ samupäsate siva iti Brahmeti vedāntino bauddha buddha iti pramāņa-pațavaḥ karteti
naiyāyikāḥ
