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 618

578
''I was pleased and won over by the very first of the Lord's illustrations. It was only because I wanted to listen to his nimble versatility in questioning that I thought I must maintain a hostile attitude, Wonderful, Sir, Wonderful. Just as a man might set upright again what has been cast down, etc., etc., while life lasts".
Gșhapati Upāli joined the order of Buddha, saluted him and departed. From that day, his doors were shut for the Niganthas. The rest of the account is still more derogatory. Upali's conversion was reported to Nataputta by Digha Tapassi at least three times before he was ready to accept it. Then he hurried to Gshapati's house to win him back. Needless to add, the reception was very cold, Upāli made it clear that the precepts of the Niganthas were meant for the fools, not for a man like him. So saying he sang in praise of Buddha when said Nätaputta,
- "Pray, when, Gșhapati, did you compose this eulogy of the recluse Gautama"?
- "Like a vast heap of diverse flowers, Sir, from which a skilled garland-maker or his apprentice might heave a garland manifold, - even so in the Lord there is full many a beauty, Yes, many hundreds of beauties, to praise. Who will refuse praise where praise is due"?
Then and there, from the mouth of Nigantha Nataputta, who could not bear to hear the Lord extolled, -there gushed hot blood.
Source: Majjhima Nikaya, Upāli Suttanta,
2.1.6
Comment
There is no mention anywhere in the Jaina Agamas of there being a senior disciple of Mahavira named Upāli. It is nowhere in the Jaina tradition of a senior monk enquiring about the well being of a monk of another sect. It is also apparent from the conversation and address between Digha Tapassi and Buddha that Buddha was younger and Tapassi pretty old. This should lend support to Mahavira's being elder in age than Buddha.