Lord Mahavira

SR No.: 011079
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bool Chand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Total Pages: 123
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 6 MB

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several books, as is clear from the variety of language forms in which different parts of the canon are written. Arguing from the language of the composition, Jacobi is of the opinion that "the first book of the Acharanga and that of the Sutrakṛtānga sutra may be reckoned among the most ancient parts of the Siddhanta" The earliest portions of the Canon do undoubtedly belong. to the period of the first disciples of Mahavira himself, while the latest portions would presumably be nearer the time of Devardhi Ganin.
Notwithstanding occasional
later accretions, however, the text of the Angas and of some at least of the Upangas offet a subtantially correct description of the state of society, religion and thought in which Mahavira performed his Sadhana and attained omniscience and of the teachings of the Lord himself.
View of the world.
Like Buddha, Lord Mahavira presented a gloomy picture of the world. "The (living) world is afflicted miserable, difficult to instruct and without discrimination."
Thus begins the second lecture of the first book of Acharanga "Quality is the seat of the root, and the seat of the root is quality. He who longs for the qualities, is overcome by great pains, and he is careless. (For he thinks) I have to provide for a mother, for a father, for a sister, for a wife, for sons, for daughters, for a daughter-in-law, for my friends, for near and remote relations, for my acquaintances, for different kinds of property, profit, meals and clothes. Longing for these objects, people are careless, suffer day and night, work in the right and the wrong time, desire wealth and treasures, commit injuries and violent acts, direct the mind, again and again, upon those injurious things (described in the first lecture). (Doing so) the life of some mortals (which by destiny would have
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