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Jaina Sramana Tradition from Adinatha to Pārsvanātha
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benevolent humans (Buddha-avatāra). The Vedic tradition evolved around the teachings of seers who believed in the forces of nature as the expressions of divine will and mood and composed hymns in their praise and in the praise of Visņu whom they considered the all-powerful controller of all the elements controlled by the lesser gods.
The Šramanic tradition, on the other hand, evolved around more rational beliefs. It attributed the progress of human prowess and virtues not to divine interference but to human thought and intelligence, developed as a result of contemplation by the intellectually wellendowed thinkers and seers. The first such thinker and seer was Rsabha, the son of the last Kulakara Nābhi and his consort Marudevi. Before Rşabha, who later came to be known as Adinātha or the first master for his rich and abundant gift to humanity, the human beings were jungle dwellers who led primitive lives without a well-defined social order or any means of livelihood except what they could get from the trees around them. They depended on the trees - Kalpa -vęksas - for their food, clothing, utensils, shelter, etc. It is easy to see that their lives were entirely controlled by the forces of nature and that they had very little or no control over them. It was Rsabha who meditated long and deep and found ways to bring the humanity out of this morass and taught the people to eke out a living with their own efforts rather than to sit-back and hope for the best. It is not surprising that such a potent potentate is also mentioned as one of the twenty-four incarnations of Vişnu by the Vedic tradition. He is the common ground on which both these traditions met in the time of yore.
From the story of evolution of life on earth, symbolically depicted by the story of incarnations of Vişnu, also borne out by the Darwinian theory of origin of species, it is clear that the Śramanic tradition, represented by Buddha, is more evolved of the two traditions. It is not at all surprising, as it is the tradition that is based on enlightenment gained through deep and long contemplation and universal love and compassion for the living irrespective of 'their stages of evolution or stations of life. The Jaina concept of Jiva also rhymes with this theory when it considers the water-borne finest creatures of vegetable origin such as algae, etc as the lowest life-form with only one sense of touch and higher life-forms in the form of two or more senses up to the rational five-sensed creatures as capable of thought and reason.
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