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SPIRITUAL PURSUIT OUTSIDE THE ORDER
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Jain literature describes Mahavira as the herald of truth Tradition numbers him as the twenty-fourth and the last tirthankar of this aeon (Yuga). In fact, every tirthankar is a harbinger of truth He does not enunciate truth on principles borrowed from any earlier scripture. He himself realises truth and then enunciates it. From this point of view each tirthankar is a harbinger and not a follower of another.
Lord Mahavira propounded truth by the dint of his own experience, Lord Parshwa was also a tirthankar. He had also enunciated truth on the basis of his own experience If it is not necessary for the enunciation done by Mahavira to be identical with that done by Parshwa, it is equally not necessary for it to differ from the former. Truth has various facets One who realised it does comprehend it and still one is not necessarily capcitated to propound it. The span of knowledge is limitless while that of its enunciation is limited That renders its exposition rather limited and relative Parshwa gave exposition to the principles that appealed to him The rest he excluded from his compass No exposition can be truly exhaustive Lord Mahavira also laid bare these principles which he found relevant to the contemporary scene The truth of the matter is that both the tirthankaras realised the selfsame truth even if enunciated differently
The spiritual course of Lord Mahavira was slightly different from that of Parshwa. History reveals that Lord Parshwa was a protagonist of organised spiritual pursuit Prior to him it had been an individual and isolated pursuit Lord Parshwa awarded it a collective form.
Spiritualism is essentially individual How can it be collectivised? One needs unbounded freedom to realise truth in a collective life it is not attainable A compromise has to be effected in such a mode of living while truth has no room for compromise In practical life there is always some scope for diversity of views and disputation Truth allows no polemics Where there is dispute compromise is the answer That which is beyond dispute allows no scope for any compromise An
