Sambodhi 1980 Vol 09

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 65

The Main features of Mahavira's contribution
appraised in Pārsva's doctrine, upon the basis of which his pathway for moksa by anārambha was propounded. Then what was the content of arambha considered by MV ?
MV classified the visible and invisible living beings who are packed in the world into 6 types by adopting the then current concept of 4 mahābhutas. This enabled him to answer more concretely to the problems, what is the world? who are the buings ? and where are these beings ?, and enabled him to open inquiries such as what are the behaviour patterns of these beings ?, how do they stand each other as the victims and assailants ?, how should we behave in order not to injure them ?, and so on. In another word, it gave a concrete world view and stimulated to advance the nature philosophical and ethical inquiries in further precision. MV tries to reply to these inquiries in the Acara I. 1. .
MV enunciated the law of aparigraha. Here he classified the objects of parigraha into the animate and inanimate things.15 Parigraha on any objects, whether men, women, cattle, wealth or land, necessarily becomes the cause of committing violence to the beings in 6 types in order to acquire them and maintain them.16 MV who went on stark naked thus restricted his disciples' possession to the minimum limit.17 The cult of nudity seems to have existed among the proto-Ajivikas, 18 and it is even probable that MV got the hint of the law of aparigraha from the existent model. At any rate, the law of aparigraha is the logical and extreme conclusion of the doctrine of anārambha. The denunciotion of parigraha is voiced as strongly as in the case of ārambha in these early texts, however the concept of parigraha become only significant in the context of arambha as its immediate major cause, but not vice versa. Aparigraba was thus maintained by MV as a part and parcel of the doctrine of anärambha. What MV did here was the restatement of the doctrine of apārarnbha in the most rigid and ideal form on both theoretical and disciplinery levels.
In the Acāra I and Sūtraksta I, the term ārambha is employed in the sense of physical violence committed to the beings. On the other hand, the term karma connotes kriyā, deed or action in general, accompanied by the capacity to bring out its fruit19 as so commonly understood in those days. Karma necessarily includes the action of ārambha which is often expressed in these texts in terms of 'pāpa karma', 'krūra karma', danda' and so on. In the context of animist position and vaira theory any action whether motivated for killing or not cannot escape committing injury to the beings, thus all and every action should be sinful.
MV, however, admitted two types of action, i. e. one which yields rebirth and the other which causes to achieve liberation. He called the