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50
Study of Jainism
We shall now discuss the conceptual problems in the light of the life incidents of the tirthankara :
1. the eternal conflict between the good and evil as
depicted in the previous lives of the tirthankara;
2. symbolism in the mythic presentation of the story
of Dharanendra and Padmavati.
The conflict between good and evil has been the perennial problem in philosophy. It is universal, to be found in almost all the mythological stories of the world. The Biblical conception of Satan revolting against God, the conflict between Ahura muzda and Ahariman in the Persian religion and the Indian conception of the struggle between the good and evil present a cosmic and a panoramic picture of reality universally common in the literature of the world whether Indian or the Western. In the life stories of the tirthankara, the struggle is extended in the series of previous
of the prophets, one going nearer to the path of self-realisation than the previous one. The whole series is a necessary concommitant to the realisation of the highest good. In the Jaina mythologies, the evil is in the end not generally crushed, but transcended and enabled into penitent goodness. The evil is transformed into goodness through forgiveness by the original goodness. This is the content of thought in the depiction of the conflict between good and evil in the previous lives of tirthankara Parsvanatha One of the striking features of the tales of his earlier births is the emphasis on the ruthless opposition of the dark brother whose development is the very antithesis of that of the prophet, Parsvanatha increases in virtue, but his dark brother, simultaneously, in evil, until the principle of the good finally wins and the evil is also transformed into good. This is the distingui shing feature of the Jaina conception of the struggle between good and evil. Evil is not lost, it is not eternally condemned. Satan invoked evil and said, 'evil, be thou my good'. The good-ness tries to lift evil along with itself to higher realm of values and transmutes into good. That is what happened in the struggle between Parsva and his dark brother called kamatha in continuing conflict in one of his previous lives. The enmity between the
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