________________
NEW IDEOLOGIES NEW TRADITIONS
165
ness is not unattended with toil and travail The farmer earns a rich harvest by the dint of hard labour Such is the rule that there is no reward without its toil some prelude
Can one, then, hope to attain self-realisation without the prerequisite of exertion? If it were possible why would one not attain it spontaneously? Why would so much disputation be warranted then ?
There is a view that Lord Mahavira enunciated a path entailing immense toil Even if it be conceded, the fact remains that toil as such is neither a means nor an end in itself in his system It is non-violence that gives impetus to his system and it is again the sole aim of it To prevail upon violence is a herculean task. Violence seems to be in the very blood of man It is natural that at every step it should assert
itself
Mahavira never prompted people towards masochism. He only exhorted them to suffer bravely the discomforts with which the spiritual path is fraught 1
The Lord himself suffered austerities not as a masochist but to enfeeble and dissolve the cumulative latencies He professed relative view of things Why would he dogmatically uphold the doctrine of austerity as the absolute means of fighting latencies without an alternative? He commended meditation more than austerity It's a well-known aphorism of his that a couple of minutes' meditation is more efficacious than a couple of days' fasting
To him austerity is the external means and meditation the internal one His system calls for meditation as much as for austerity Neither is complete in itself Both are efficacious in their own way
Certain pursuants of austerities expiated in an unwise manner They would lie down over iron-nails Their bodies would bleed profusely? Certain other monks of masochistic
1 2
"Dasvealıyam 8/27 lbid 9/3/6
