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German scholars and statesmen. Thus, Jainism is attrac. ting the attention of and appealing to the hearte of the German people.
15 Greece: The ancient Greeks owed not a little to Indian pbilosopby. The Macedonians or the Greeka were the followers of the Egyptians, wbo were influenced by the Jaina teacbings, as we have seen above. The re. ligious history of the Greeks, too, shows signs of the prevalence of Jaina doctrines in their country. Greek pbilosopbers, like Pythagorast (5th century B, C. ), Pyrrhoa and Plotinus were the chief exponents of Indian philosophy. They Studied pbilosophy with the Gymnoso. pbists (Jainas ). So, rightly did Pythagoras proclaim the immortality of the soul and tbe doctrines of transmigration in the manner of Jainas.3 He advocated and passed a simple life, punctuated with the rules of asceti. ciem-the vow of silence being one of them, bolding en important place in Jaina asceticism. He condemned meat diet and use of beans, wbich bas puzzled European writere much. But the fact is tbat Pytbagoras bad learnt wisdom from the Gymnosopbiste (Jaidas, and the Jainas do not use beans in combination with milk and curd, the ground that in conjunction with the human saliva such a combination of heads becomes the breeding soil of an infinity of microscopic germs,' wbich are destroyed in the process of digestion. It was to avoid the destruction of so many innocent lives tbat tbe Jaidas recommended a betaining from the use of beans in combination with milk and curd and the Pythagorians bad probably taken the doctrine from the Jainas.
1. The Confluence of Opposites. Addenda. P. 3, 2. Lord Mahavira & Some Other Teachers of His Time, P. 35 3. "Vira”, Vol. II, P. 81 4. Ibid. 5. Gymnosophists were Digambara Jains, See Encyclopaedia
Britannica, XV., P. 128 6. Addenda to the Confluence of Opposites, P, 3.
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
