Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India
In this connection we may note the account of the Sandaka-Sutta of the Majjhima-nikaya" where the bhikkhu Ananda describes to the wanderer Sandaka the four 'antitheses to the higher life' (abrahmacariyavāsā):
(a) The materialist teacher who denies the existence of an afterlife;
(b) The antinomian-a repetition of Pūraṇa's doctrine; (c) The fatalist-repeating the teachings of Makkhali; and (d) The atomist-repeating the atomic theory of Pakudha.
Ananda then describes the four 'comfortless vocations' (anassāsikāni brahmacariyāni):
(a) The teacher claiming omniscience;
(b) The traditionalist:
(c) The rationalist; and (d) The sceptic.
All these doctrines were, directly or indirectly, concerned with death and annihilation, or with fear, frustration and helplessness. They believed that all human actions and endeavours were fruitless. They found no discrepancy between merit and demerit, between violence and non-violence. Ajita Keśakambalin could not distinguish between the fool and the wise, for both were doomed to death, and Sanjaya kept himself mum since the deeply ingrained faiths behind the ideas were all uprooted; and Gośāla, being a fatalist, professed that human activity could do nothing to change the course of events. In fact, the entire philosophical or religious world in eastern India was in a state of anarchy. No systematic or methodical schools of philosophy and religion emerged due to precarious atmosphere which was not congenial to the creation of any religious school with an organised system of practice and doctrine. It was an age of intellectual restlessness and the consequent craving for a new method of attaining serenity was perceptible. And the mendicant bearing a staff, of whatever class or order wandering from place to place advocates: Mākṛta karmāņi mā kṛta karmāņi śāntirvaḥ śreyasītyāhāto Maskarī Parivrājakaḥ,"
It shows that the wandering class roaming from place to place propounded for peace which was most essential need of the time