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SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
orderly religious living entails mutual dealing, and wherever there is mutual dealing there is compromise What led Lord Parshwa devise organised mode of religion? Why dia Lord Mahavira recognise it? He certainly was not a follower or disciple of Parshwa It was not incumbent on him to perpetuate the tradition ordained by Parshwa How was it then that he choose to endorse a collective monastic pursuit?
Lord Mahavira trode the spiritual path alone For years he himself was his company Subsequent to enlightenment he diverted his attention to collective living Once his inner bondage snapped, he agreed to accept the outer bondage, This bondage was a sanction for deliverance of innumerable beings Indeed, it was a materialisation of the abstract rather than a bondage The light incarnates into an earthen lamp. Its object is to emit light, nothing but to emit hght.
The Lord organised spiritual pursuit in a peculiar context The purpose was to regulate collective life with its indispensable mutuality Some of the aspirants were physically invalid and others strong Some aspirants were healthy and others debilitated Some were in the prime of their life and others old Weak, sick and aged aspirants found it difficult to pull on Either they suffered privation or subsisted on the householders' help Lord Parshwa felt that if an aspirant was in need let another aspirant fulfil it
A householder has his own responsibilities which he is required to shoulder The spiritual aspirants are free from domestic responsibilities Let a fit aspirant, then, attend on an ailing one
This concept was the keystone of collective spiritual pursuit An unorganised pursuit suffers for the want of a regulatory system on the other hand an organised pursuit has a built-in regulatory system The regulatory system was incorporated in the spiritual regimen to present it in a regulated garb An unorganised pursuit need not be uniform but an organised pursuit ought to be uniform To effect this uniformity, a spiritual regimen was devised The system intro
