Read the following excerpts carefully and answer the questions that follow.
The world beyond the palace:
Just as the Buddha’s teachings were compiled by his followers, the teachings of Mahavira were also recorded by his disciples. These were often in the form of stories, which could appeal to ordinary people. Here is one example from a Prakrit text known as the Uttaradhyayana Sutta, describing how a queen named Kamalavati tried to persuade her husband to renounce the world:
If the whole world and all its treasures were yours, you would not be satisfied, nor would all this be able to save you. When you die, O king and leave all things behind, dhamma alone, and nothing else, will save you. As a bird dislikes the cage, so do I dislike (the world), I shall live as a nun without offspring, without desire, without the love of gain, and without hatred ...
Those who have enjoyed pleasures and renounced them, move about like the wind, and go wherever they please, unchecked like birds as their flight.
Leave your large kingdom ... abandon what pleases the senses, be without attachment and property, then practise severe penance, being firm of energy ...
A. Name the text from which this excerpt has been taken. What is the language of the text?
B. What did queen Kamalavati ask the king to renounce?
C. Describe the main principles of Jainism.
B. Queen Kamalavati asked the king (her husband) to renounce the world in the following words:
“If the whole world and all its treasures were yours, you would not be satisfied, nor would all this be able to save you. When you die, O king and leaves all things behind, dhamma alone, and nothing else, will save you. As a bird dislikes the cage, so do I dislike (the world). I shall live as a nun without offspring, without desire, without the love of gain, and without hatred...”
C. The main principles of Jainism are as follow:
(a) Ahimsa: The most important idea in Jainism is that the entire world is animated: even stones, rocks and water have life. Non-injury to living beings, especially to humans, animals, plants and insects is central to Jaina philosophy. Infact the principle of ahimsa, emphasized within Jainism, has left its mark on Indian thinking as a whole.
(b) Cycle of birth and Karma theory:
(c) Achauriya (Do not steal): According to Jainism one should not even touch a thing, which is lying in the forest.
(d) Aparigriha: According to Jainism do not try to collect the things beyond your necessities. It will check on greed.
(e) Brahmacharya for salvation: Every one has to give up the worldly pleasure and had to go for sufferings before attainment of salvation. Even a married person can work on the principle Brahmacharya having self-control.
