________________
Religion, Practice and Science of Non-Violence
Vardhmana Mahavira laid emphasis upon non-violence to all forms of life, human as well as non-human; with the outward rituals adopted by the monks, traditions gradually developed through which non-human life came to be protected more arduously than even the human life.
Buddhism
While Mahavira advocated non-violence to all forms of life as a means to liberation of the soul (nirvāna), another great sage, the Buddha, laid emphasis upon the practice of compassion among human beings. His teachings spread far and wide, crossing the borders of the Indian sub-continent.
Gautama Siddhārtha, who later became the Buddha (the Enlightened One) was probably born in the year 563 BC, at Lumbini, a place now situated inside Nepal, 4 miles from the Indo-Nepal border. His father Suddhodana was the chief of the Shakya clan which had its capital at Kapilavastu. His mother, Māyā, unfortunately, died on the seventh day after the delivery and the infant was looked after by the queen's sister, Mahaprajāpati Gotami.
At the time of Siddhārtha's birth, it was prophesied that he would do great good to the world by becoming either an emperor or an ascetic. As his father wanted him to become a great emperor. he did his best to keep Gautama's mind busy in the pleasures of the world so that he should never lean towards asceticism.
Gautama received a good education in ethics, various systems of philosophy, and the Vedas. He also acquired great skill in the arts of war. At the age of eighteen, by displaying his skill and by proving his superiority over his kinsmen in a royal military contest, he won and married the beautiful princess Yashodharā, the daughter of the Shakyan Suppabuddha.
For ten years Gautama enjoyed the pleasures of a householder but in the midst of his family life, wealth, comfort and luxury, he keenly felt a yearning for something higher, something not clearly definable. One night, it is said, he dreamed that the gods were asking him to leave the life of pleasure and luxury and to wander about in search of the objective that would deliver the world of its sorrow. So far Gautama had lived mostly within the four walls of the palace, but the dream made him restless to
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
