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Some Aspects of Indian Culture
Kollága. Here he met Mahāvīra and repeated his request. This time Mahavira accepted it and allowed him company for six years. Once it so happened that they both saw a sesamum plant in full bloom as they were going to Kurmāragrāma from Siddharthagrāma. Gośālaka being both intelligent and inquisitive put a question to Mahāvīra. "Divine Sir! What will be the fate of this plant and the seven flowers hanging at the top ?" Mahavira, the seer, replied: "Gośālaka ! in course of time it will bear fruit and these seven flowers will be born as seven sesamums in the same plant." "Gośālaka who was essentially a sceptic could not put faith in Mahavira's words. As he wanted at heart to disprove Mahāvīra's prophecy, he pulled out the plant from the ground thinking in his mind that he had thereby removed the possibility of its fructification. They reached Kurmāragrāma in the outskirts of which Gośälaka saw Vaiśyāyana practising penance in the blazing sun with his head downwards and feet upwards. He approached him and asked: Oh, are you an ascetic or a sacrificial post ? To this Vaisyāyana did not reply. Gošālaka derisively repeated the same quesiion, whereupon Vaiśyāyana took to anger and discharged the “heating power" (which he had come to possess as a result of his hard austerities) to kill Gośālaka. Mahāvīra, who saw this, took pity on Goślaka and discharged bis "cooling power” to counteract the heating power of Vaiśyāyana who finally praised Mahavira in a loud voice. Gośālaka could find no marked reason that made Vaisyāyana not only speak, but speak in a tone praising Mahavira, because the discharging of powers on both the sides had taken place without the notice and knowledge of Gośālaka. Mahävira when asked by Gośālaka, explained the whole thing to him and showed him also, at his request, the method of acquiring the heating power possessed by Vaiśyāyana. After this event they both returned to Siddhārthagrama from Kurmāragrāma and on the way back that very sesamum plant came to sight, proving true word for word Mahāvira's prediction. Just after Gośālaka had uprooted the plant and thrown it off, the clouds gathered in the sky and it began to rain in torrents whereby the uprooted sesamum plant got stuck to the ground and in due course of time it bore fruits also as was foretold by Mahāvira. Gośālaka was dumbfound and he requested Mahavira to unravel the secret, the latter propounded in unambiguous words his principle of everlasting truth. "Oh, Gośălaka, the living organisms of the vegetable kingdom take birth after their death in various parts (branches, roots etc.) of their principal body (tree).” Gośālaka enlarged this principle of Mahavira to an illogical extent and on a false analogy started a theory that every soul could inbabit the same body after death. This principle is the very essence of Gośālaka's theory technically called Parivar tavada (hereinafter referred to as the Theory of Transformation). Mahavira's above-mentioned doctrine was simply restricted to the living organisms of the vegetable kingdom. Gośālaka intentionally misinterpreted and extended it to all living beings under the sun. But later on, this theory of transformation was again modified by Gośālaka himself to be able to cope with the new situation that arose out of his exposure by Mahāvira. At that time he seems to be giving a turn to his own theory and propounds that every living being should occupy his former body only seven times (but not as many times as he wished) and that too only in
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