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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
actions, there is no influx into future life; by this non-influx Karma is destroyed and so ill is destroyed, and so all pain will become worn away. This, brethren, is what the Niganthas say... Is it true, I asked them, that you believe and declare this?... They replied
Our leader, Nataputta [Mahavira], is all-wise... out of the depth of his knowledge he tells us: ye have done evil in the past. This ye do wear away by this hard and painful course of action. And the discipline that here and now, by thought, word, and deed is wrought, is a minus quantity of bad Karma in future life. Thus all Karma will eventually be worn away and all pain. To this we assent" (Majjhima ii, 214 ff; cf. i. 238). The Encyclo. R. & E. Vol. II. p. 70.
Here Buddha clearly refers to (i) Paramatman Mahavira, (ii) the Jainas and (iii) the most important of all the Jaina claim that Paramatman Mahavira was all-knowing. And it was not mere idle curiosity, unproductive of tangible results, that led Buddha to seek an interview with the Nigantha (Jainas). He was fired by the ambition to acquire that all-wisdom which he had seen in the omniscient Teacher. His life thereafter was moulded accordingly. When enfeebled and almost worn away by tapas (asceticism) which did not lead to the sought-for enlightenment, he said :
Not by this bitter course of painful hardships shall I arrive at that separate and supreme vision of all-sufficing noble (Aryan) knowledge passing human ken. Right there be not another path to enlightenment?" (Encyclo. R. &. E. Vol. II. p. 70.)
These two extracts furnish conclusive evidence of the following facts:
1. That Paramatman Mahavira was a real historical being, and not a myth:
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2.
That he was a contemporary of Buddha;
3. That the claim as to the omniscience of Paramatman Mahavira was openly made by the Jainas, whose religion teaches that every soul is endowed with potential omniscience, which is fully developed when it is about to obtain Nirvana;
4. That Buddha was fired by the example of the Great Master to acquire that all-wisdom which he described in the most glowing terms
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