Some Aspects of Indian Culture

Author(s): A S Gopani, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Ājivika sect-a new interpretation
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even after his meeting wtth Mahāvira. So he was essentially a fatalist and wedded to that theory with all the force of heart. All other theories he evolved just as he felt them indispensably necessary. It is not to be seen whether he remained consistent or not in conceiving these theories. It is quite manifest through his Parivartavāda how illogical or inconsistent he could become when he chose to do so. It looks not only unconvincing but absurd when he says to Mahavira that he was not the same Gošalaka who was his pupil but was Udayi Kundiyāyanıya in the body of Gogālaka who died some time before.
• VI.-Analysis of Gośālaka's Transformation (Parivartavada) GOŚĀLAKA's theory of transformation is to be understood and interpreted with refercnce to bis theory of the world. Looking to the mental development of Gośālaka, it can be stated with a fair amount of certainty that the first theory which he formulated was the theory of destiny (Niyativāda) and the second was the theory of transformation (Parivartavāda) while his theory of the world was a corollary from these two.
According to the theory of transformation every Jiva can assume, like the living organism of the vegetable kingdom, the body of the same kind after death for times without number. While according to his theory of the world every sentient human being could inhabit the body of the same kind without dying but seven times only and that too in the birth (bhava) preceding emancipation. Instead of finding harmony between these two theories, Shri KARAGATHALA sees irreconcilable contradiction.8. I for one do not agree with him for I believe that there is complete affinity between these theories though we are unfortunate in not having any light from the Currikara and the commentator. I give below Shri KARAGATHALA's synthesis of these two conflicting (according to him) theories :
(1) Every Jiva can take birth after death seven times in the same species like a living organism of the vegetable kingdom.
Note : He adds the word seven on his own responsibility though it is not specifically mentioned in the first theory (theory of transformation) stating for his so doing that the Jaina and the Buddhistic works often employ the word seven in the respective descriptions of their theories of the world as in seven sam yuthas, seven births of godhood, seven births of demonhood, etc.
(2) It is more proper to believe, Shri KARAGATHALA adds, that a Jiva is born seven times in the same species after dying rather than believing that a sentient human being can change its abode seven times without undergoing death in the last birth (bhava) preceding emancipation as formulated by Gośālaka in his second theory of the worldly existence.
Note : For bis modification of Gośālaka's theory, Shri KARAGATHALA adduces a simple reason that it is neither intelligible nor practicable to change a body seven times
* Published in the Bharatiya Vidya, Vol. III, Part 1; November, 1941.