________________
118
SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
'They are by a constant process of conversion lapsing one into the other Atom, on the other hand, is indestructible. Its existence is lasting and interminable in the mutually convertible modes of dark and light'
The stream of trinomial syllogism lent sustenance to the intellect of these leaders of a nascent order! They read new meanings in this epistemology and in their turn elaborated it into a compendium with twelve parts The work enunciated the metaphysics and epistemology of Lord Mahavira
They regretted that hitherto they had been squandering energies in modes instead of discovering the ultimate reality Men, beasts and birds are apparently different realities while in the ultimate analysis they are modes of one reality Self is the ultimate reality and the myriad modes differ from one another only in outward appearances They owe their diverse appearances to the illuminant self What relevance can the arbitrary state of the high or the low, the noble or the commoner have? How can one land caste-marks and stigmatize the other as utouchable? When the diverse appearances owe their origin to the overshining refulgence of the self how inane the birth-riveted castes are? How can casteism, so much esteemed, signify any truth worth the name? What rationale could there be to run down the females and the low caste, people?
The deities and the beasts all borrow sustenance from the ever-illumunating self How then can the heinous practice of animal sacrifice to appease the deities be rationalised ?
The trinomial syllogism tore the veil of illusion of the ganadharas The accumulated latencies were washed off, thanks to the enlightenment granted to them by the Lord
