Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 48

Moral and Social Outlook of Śramaņism
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stated the Ājivika saints claimed miraculous powers and especially the power of 'reanimation ’. The metaphysical basis of the Ājīvika doctrine remains obscure. The word 'bhāva' in Niyati-sangati-bhavaparinatā' could hardly mean 'svabhāva' since 'svabhava-vada' generally implied materialism.20 Ajīvikas make a contrast between the innate purity of the soul and the determined but temporally limited process of time. As in the later doctrine of Malapáka or of Prárabdha Karman, human emancipation must await the moment when Karman matures and ultimately ceases through fruition. The Ajīvikas remain the most forceful exponents of the belief that 'nābhuktvå kșiyate karma kalpakoțiśatairapi’ | Unexperienced Karman is not exhausted even in tens of millions of cycles of existence'. In their contrast of the soul and Karman, and their extreme asceticism culminating in religious suicide, the Ājivikas were very near the Nigganthas with whom they were sometimes confused. The attribution of atomism to the Ajivakas is not supported by reliable early evidence and Prof. Basham's reliance on Tamilian sources is open to doubt.2 1 The Ajīvika doctrine of the six Abhijätis is another point of contact between them and the Nigganțhas who hold a similar doctrine of the six leśyās. 2 2
Pūraņa Kassapa is said to have denied the reality of Pāpa and Pun va. Neither does any sin or crime lead to Pāpa, nor any good action to Punya....... pānam atimāpayato adinnam adiyato...... musa bhanato karoto na kariyati på pam......dānena damena samyamena sacca vajjena natthi pāpassa natthi puññassa ágamo '/23 “ Violence, stealing, do not produce any sin. Nor is any virtue produced by liberalities, control of the senses, self-restraint or truth”. This is not a doctrine of fatalism and has nothing to do with the Ājīvika position. This is an antinomianism from the point of view of the ultimate immutability of the soul. It reminds one of the Gītā that the soul neither kills nor is killed
20. Cf. Basham, op. cit., p. 26. 21. Cf. Basham, op. cit., pp. 263ff. 22. On les yäs see Uttarādhyayana, xxxiv : Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, Pt. II, pp. 194
203; See also K. C. Lalwani (ed. & tr.), Bhagavati Sūtra, Vol. I (Jain
Bhawan, Calcutta ), p. 235 for his note on les ya. 23. Digha Nikaya (Nal. ed.), I, p. 46.