Book Title: Studies in Jainism
Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
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STUDIES IN JAINISM
The Brāhmaṇa : Is everything one and identical
(sabban ekattarn) ? The Buddha : To say so is the third view of the worlding. The Brāhmana : Is everything separate
(sabban puthuttam) ? The Buddha : To say so is the fourth view of the worlding.
Therefore the Buddha preaches dhamma (i.e. the law of causation) of the middle path, avoiding the above two extremes.
V. SANJAYA BELAȚTHIPUTTA (THE SCEPTICS) Sanjaya, son of Belaţthi or Vairāți, was also one of the religious leaders of the sixth century B.C., and probably an elder contemporary of the Buddha. He is believed to be identical with Parivrājaka Sañjaya, teacher of Sāriputta and Moggallána. Parivrājaka Suppiya was another follower of Sanjaya. He was reputed for an opinion which was a scepticism on the one hand and a primitive stage of criticism of knowledge on the other, like that of the Sophists in the Greek philosophy:47 His scepticism on metaphysical questions may be summed up as follows :
'If you ask me whether there is future existence (atthi paraloko), well, if I believed that there was, I should say so. But I do not say so. And I do not say it is thus or this. And I do not say it is otherwise, and I do not say that it is not so, nor do I say it is not not so. If you ask me whether there is no future existence (na'tthi paraloko), well, if I believed ... If you ask me whether there is and is not another world (atthi ca na'tthi ca paraloko), well, if I believed ... If you ask me whether there neither is nor is not another world (n'ev'atthi no na'tthi paraloko), well, if I believed... 48
A follower of this sect has been described in the Brahmajāla-Sutta (37) as Amarāvikkhepika, who, when asked a question, would equivocate and wriggle out like an eel. Barua thinks that the Aviruddhakas mentioned in the Anguttara Nikaya were also followers of Sañjaya-that they were called Amarāvikkhepikas for their philosophical doctrines and Aviruddhakas for their moral conduct.
47. H. Vi, op.cit., p.23. 48. Samaññaphala-Sutta, 31.
