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20
Some Aspects of Indian Culture
in private lends full support to my inference. It was an age of penance and noninjury. Self-mortification was preached with vigour and vehemence. In sich an atmosphere it was suicidal for the Ajivika school to give free reinst the cravings of the flesh. So they also like all other rival schools, made room for austerities but not with sincerity. Self-torture cannot be a real aim in the case of those who were wedded to the principle of divine dispensation. This also proves that they were past masters in the art of dissimulation. Moreover, when they practised it with one sincerity, they did it with a view to achieving divine powers which were used to inspire awe in the public and to draw it towards them. Eating sumptuous Jinners made them fat and sharpened their sexual appetite which they perhaps satisfied in any manner they liked. They even went to the length of staying as their sons in company with sonless women offering services in the form of consolation in times of their adversity. Hereby they could get the best opportunity to preach to them the cardinal principles of the school of destiny and to cultivate a genuin: liking for that. This somewhat accounts for the fact that Gośālaka had a large following. 45
It also makes me suspect that at the same time this provided ample scope and convenience to satisfy their sexual hunger. In all tiines and climes wonin has plaid a really solid though imperceptible part in shaping the course of a man's career. Their company is an oasis in the desert of life. It provides solace to a solitary man in times of adversity and adds flavour to happiness. The practical and cunning Ajivikas were fully conscious of the efficacy and the influence of woman. Thus while accepting to offer honorary services they reaped all the advantages of a married life without incurring any responsibility of a house-holder. For his propaganda Gośālaka preferied woman to man. His headquarters in the shop of Ha āhala a pottress in Savatthi pr.). vide a telling instance. My conclusions regarding the empiovinent of a wonan for propaganda purposes have a support from Gośālaka himself who says to Ardraka to the effect that cold water and the company of a woman are allowed to a monk moving alone.
It is a fact that the Ajivikas did not urink wine and did not eat meat. It is quite natural that these people would have gone to that length but they did not do so as their prohibition was specially laid down by Gośālaka himself whom they dared not disobey, though we know that he himself drank and danced. In order to justify this inconsistency and contradiction between his word and deed, he pleaded that it was destined in the case of the last Tirthamkara of this aeon of decrease but no one else should practise it. They could have drunk and justified their conduct on the grounds of predestination but Göğālaka's hold on them was so firm and fast that they could not go against his wish:s al inju ictis. Drinking wins and eating mat must have been looked down upon ai the evils of society in those days and therefore Gosalaka must have prohibited their use as a matter of policy. I purposely use the words as a matter of policy" because for a fatalist anything and everything is allowed as a policy. To enlist public sympathcy, Gosglaka could not have afforded to close his eyes against
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