“After sometime Gosala was stricken with a fever and being delirious he
held a mango in his hand, drank liquors, sang, danced and made improper
advances to Halahala, and sprinkled on himself the cool muddy water from
the potter’s vessels, which acts, Mahavira explained to his disciples, led
to the Ajivika doctrines of the eight Finalities (Atthacarimaim).
The first four of he eight Finalities were the last four acts performed by
Gosala, viz., the last drink, the song, the last dance and the last
improper solicitor. The other four were the last tornado, the last
sprinkling elephant, he last fight with big stones and missiles, and the
last Tirthankara who is Golsala himself.
Gosala’s sprinkling himself with the muddy water from the earthen vessels
gave rise to the doctrine of the four things that may be used as drinks
and the four things as their substitutes by virtue of the coolingness.
Those that may be used as water are the cow’s urine, water accidentally
collected in a Potter’s vessels, water heated by the sun, and water
dripping from a rock. Those that may be used as substitutes are holding in
the hand a dish or a bottle or a jar or a pot which is cool or moist;
squeezing in the mouth a mango or a hogplum or a jujube or a tin-duka
fruit when it is unripe or uncooked, but not drinking its juice and
feeling the touch of the moist hands of the gods punnabhadda and
Manibhadda when they appear on the last night of six months to one who
eats pure food for six months, lies successively for two months each on
bare ground, on wooden planks, and on kusa grass. He who submits to
touch of the two gods furthers the work of venomous snakes but he who does
not do so generates in himself a fire, which burns his body, and he dies
and attains liberation.
Ayambula, an Ajivika, came to visit Gosala at the time and felt ashamed
finding Gosala in a delirium. He was about to go away but Ajivika
elders called him back, explained the new doctrines and asked him to put
his question to Gosala after throwing away the mango in his hand.
Ayambula did so and asked about the halla insect. Gosala
replied “This which you see is not a mango but only the skin of a mango.
You ask about the halla insect, it is like the root of the bamboo; play
the lute, man, play the lute.” Then Gosala feeling the end approaching
called his disciples and requested them to observe his funeral with all
honors and proclaim that he was the last Tirthankara. But afterwards he
felt that he was not an omniscient but a false, teacher and a humbug but
that Mahavira was the true Jina. Then he called his disciples and
asked them to treat him with dishonor after he was dead and proclaim his
misdeeds and the Jina hood of Mahavira. Then he died. The Ajivika
theras closed the door and pretended to carry out Gosala’s last
instructions, and then they opened the doors and gave him a funeral
according to his original wishes.”
The account may be exaggerated, but seems to be fundamentally well- based.
It is also corroborated by Buddhist texts. The Buddhists had no cause for
special resentment against the Ajivika, yet even the Buddhists do
not refer to Gosala with respect. Dr. Hoernle mentions in his article on
the Ajivika in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics that in the
mouth of the Buddhists, ‘Ajivika’ was a term of reproach, meant to
stigmatize Gosala and his followers as professionals. Gosala’s humble
origin and humble connections may have been partly responsible for the
contempt with which, he was looked upon by the other religious leaders.
Gosala’s father was Mankhali, who used to wander about from place to place
exhibiting a picture. He once came with his wife to Sarvana and took up
his lodging in the cowshed of a wealthy Brahmin called Gobahula, and
Gosala is reputed to have been born there. For some time Gosala himself
seems to have followed his father’s calling, but ultimately he took up
ascetic life and for sometime was also a companion of Mahavira during the
period of his preparation. The story of Gosal’s separation from Mahavira,
assumption of the Jinahood, and the establishment of the Ajivika
order, has already been told in a previous chapter.
Brahmanic schools:
Jaina literature is full of references to numerous schools of popular
Brahmanism. Among heretical doctrines there is mention of some, who hold
that the owing of possessions and the engaging in undertakings is quite
compatible with the attainment of perfection. This is obviously a
reference to Brahman priests who supported a non-ascetic religion of
rituals and ceremonies and themselves possessed wealth and property. The
Sankya, Yoga, Vedanta and other views also have been referred to in
order to equip the Nirgrantha ascetic with the usual beliefs of the
common people entertained under wrong understanding, and also with a view
to show up the apparently contradictory views held by the Vedantists
and the Purantists. The Philosophy of the Nastikas, the
materialists, who deny the existence of the soul, is also mentioned as a
wrong doctrine.
There is mention of a host of minor schools, holding quite unusual views:
(1) That a Jiva performed right conduct and wrong conduct at the same
time, (2) That there is no harm in enjoying the pleasures of the senses,
for it gave relief to the enjoyer without causing harm to any one else,
(3) that the soul and everything else is mere appearance, mirage, an
illusion, a dream, a phantasy, etc.
Nihnavas
The twenty-seventh year of Mahavira’s ascetic life, that is, the fifteenth
year after the attainment of Kevala, the year of his famous
encounter with Gosala, was marked by the occurrence of the first schism in
the community, when Jamali separated from the Lord with a small band of
his disciples who afterwards gradually left him. The event that had led to
the dissension can briefly be stated as follows. Once Jamali begged
permission to go wandering with a large number of ascetics, but Mahavira
gave no reply even after being asked three times. Jamali, however, did not
wait for the permission any further and left Mahavira, together with his
own disciples. While thus wandering independently, once upon a time he
went to Sarvasti and stayed at the Tinduka garden. He had
been suffering from fever at the time and asked his companion ascetics to
stretch a bed to lie down upon. While they were stretching the bed, he
asked them whether it was ready. They replied in the affirmative. But when
Jamali found that it was only being made ready, he got angry, and ascribed
their affirmative answer to their false doctrine that a thing in the
making is as good as a thing completely made (karain manrai
kedai). His companions tried to convince him of the soundness of the
doctrine, but he would not listen to them. There was much discussion about
Jamali’s refutation of the doctrine, and some of his disciples left him
consequently. Jamili visited Mahavira at Campa in order to inform him that
he had attained omniscience. But when Mahavira refused to admit his claim,
Jamali felt humiliated and finally left him to establish his own order.
His order, however, does not appear to have lasted for long. It is most
probable that his order did not survive him. Jamali is the first Nihnava
‘dissenter’ in the Sangha established by Mahavira.
The texts record six more such Nihnavas belonging to different
periods, within the first six centuries of the Nirvana of Lord
Mahavira in the history of the Jaina church. They are Tisyagupta
(15 years after Mahavira’s Kevalihood) the Acarya of the
Jivapradesikas; Asadha 214 years after Vira-nirvana)
the Acarya of the avyaktikas; Asvam itra (220A. V.)
the Acarya of the Samucchedkas, Ganga (228 A. V.) the
Acarya of the dvaikriyas; Saduluka (also known as
Rohagupta, 544 A. V.) the Acarya of the Trairasikas; and
Gosthamahila, (584A. V.) the Acarya of the Ababdhikas.
The Jivapradesikas held that the last space-point of the soul was
the soul proper in view of the fact that the soul is incomplete and,
therefore, not soul proper unless it includes its last space-point which
completes its being. But they did not notice the fact that any and every
space point of the soul could be considered as the last space point and as
such they insisted on a doctrine which had no sound reasoning behind it.
Tisyagupta formulated the doctrine on the basis of some texts which he
failed to understand properly. The Avyaktikas were skeptics who
were suspicious of everybody and so did not bow down to anyone. The result
was that their lay disciples also began to withhold their respectful
homage from them. It is said that the Avyaktikas developed this
skeptic attitude after they were made to bow down to the corpse of their
Acarya named Asadha, who re-inhabited his own corpse, out of
mercy, in order to bring to a speedy end the Yoga of his disciples.
The Samucchedikas were those who believed in the momentariness of
all things. Asvamitra was their Acarya. He misinterpreted a
text and developed the doctrine. He remained quite blind to the other
texts, which clearly stated the permanence as well as constituting the
nature of a thing. The Dvaikriyas upheld the doctrine of the
possibility of the experience of two-fold actions at one and the same
time. Ganga the Acarya of Dvaikriyas was one day crossing a
river, when he experienced both cold and heat, and jumped to the
conclusion that they felt simultaneously. The Agama text, however,
clearly denies the possibility of two-fold experience. The Trairasikas
were those who believed in the three categories of Jiva, Ajiva and
No-jiva instead of the two, viz., Jiva and Ajiva
as accepted in the Agamas. Sauluka as their Acarya, who is
said to have invented the third category in order to defeat his opponent
by confronting him with a new problem. But afterwards when he was asked by
his gura to admit the trick before the judges, he disagreed and was
consequently turned out of the Sangha. The Abaddhikas upheld
that the Karma-matter can only touch the soul, cut cannot become
one with it, because if it became one with the soul, there would be no
possibility of re-separation. This doctrine openly goes against the
accredited view that Karma unites with the soul exactly as heat
unites with iron and water with milk, Gosthamahila was the Acarya
of the Abaddhikas.
The sects founded by these Nihnavas, it appears from the accounts
given, did not survive their founders. The accounts further reveal the
fact that the Jaina Sangha as strong enough to foil the attempts of
these dissenters at bringing about any untoward change in it.
Philosophy
