________________
42
TULSI-PRAJNA, July-Sept., 1991
so that his body was reduced to a mere bag of bones which audibly cracked. At last he realized that the attainment of supreme intelligence is in no way and not at all dependent on hard austerities. He, therefore, abandoned the way of life based on this and adopted, instead, meditation and mental tranquillity to reach the highest peak of perfection and he did reach. These two dissimilarities of experience which these two great personalities had possessed, became crystalized in their groups as they were transmitted through tradition as was natural. Elaboration of the concept of physical mortifications as incorporated in such phrases as "dehaduhkham mahāphalam" is found there in the Jain scriptures while in the Buddhist works it is gradually ignored.
Overcoming the passions
The attempt of Mahävira was mainly directed at scoring a victory over love and hatred and such other pairs of possions. As a result of this, omniscience followed. This made it obligatory for him not to do anything that came in this way of his. In order to achieve this, he wandered from one place to another and undertook long fasts. This made it possible for him to obtain complete victory on attachment and aversion but his over-all intelligence never went beyond the mark reached by Pārsva. In other words Mahāvīra followed metaphysical and philosophical ideologies the foundation of which was laid by Pārsva, two and a half centuries before and realized what was latent to him by completely mastering vicious pairs of passions such as love and hatred etc. It is because of this that Mahāvīra's vision of truth does not differ from that of Pārsva. Mahāvīra's principle aim was to root out love and hatred, attachment and aversion. He never hankered after originating a new line of thinking.
Against the above, Buddha concentrated on the attainment of supreme intelligence. He wanted, no doubt, to strip himself of passions and all that but his main anxiety was the cultivation of intelligence to a climax. Buddha came into contact with many erudite and contemplative persons in his effort for getting supreme intelligence. Having tested the experiences which the others had shown him, Buddha gave them up one after another. He never had satisfaction with what he got from others. Finally, about the realization of truth which he worked out in his own way through his own method of contemplation, he put forth his claim in clear terms that what he has achieved was extraordinary and was never achieved by any ne before him. Thus, Buddha's endeavou tos cultivate perfect and
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
