Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study

SR No.: 022804
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nagaraj Muni
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers
Publication Year: 1986
Total Pages: 804
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 51

11
MONK ÄRDRAKAKUMĀRA & GOSALAKA:
Gosalaka Ardraka ! I shall narrate for you the early life of Mahavira. In the beginning, he was a śramana monk wandering alone. Now he moves with a band of monks and preaches his religion. In this manner, this restless soul has built up a profession for earning his subsistence. Thus there is a clear contradiction between his present behaviour and his past behaviour.
Monk Ardraka - Bhagavān Mahavira's solitude is the same in the present as it has been in the past, and I assure you, it will remain the same in the future. Freed from attachment and malice, though he lives in the midst of thousands of men, still he practises his penances in solitude. A monk who has conquered his senses preaches keeping in view the merits and shortcomings of his speech, and I think, there is not even an iota of fault in it. One who understands well such tenets of the śramana order as the great vows, lesser vows, influx of fresh kar ma-fetters, is, in my view, a sramana.
Gosālaka - In my considered view, a solitary monk incurs no sin whatsoever in drinking fresh (unboiled) water, in eating grains (seeds), in accepting purposive food and in enjoying women.
Monk Ardraka - If this be so, then (it should follow that) ail householders are sramanas; for, in fact, they do all these things. Those monks who take fresh water, eat grains, etc., have turned mor khood into a mockery in order to earn a living. I do not agree that they make themselves fit for liberation by mere renunciation.
Gośälaka,- But, my dear sir, in expressing such a view, you are, in fact, decrying all other views.
Monk Ardraka - The heretics extol their own views and decry those of others. They claim, 'we alone are in possession of truths, none else'. But I decry wrong principles, not personalities. How can those monks who do not even desire as much as to inconvenience immobile beings decry others ?