A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s2.68

v2.c20.s2.68

‘Numerous parables,’ which have been handed down faithfully as such, show Mahāvīra endeavouring to make his meaning comprehensible to his hearers. He must condescend very low to the level of their intelligence, and draw on incidents familiar to them from their daily lives. Thus, for instance, the old man, to whom a blow from an axe causes the same pain as grief causes to an elemental being (19, 3); the immense number of glances fixed upon a dancing girl, the crowdedness and yet isolation of which corresponds to the kindred qualities of the single points of space (11, 10); the goat-shed, which is as full of the excrements of the goats, as origination and decay are taking place at every point of space (12, 7). Souls and substances permeate one another, as water permeates a sunken ship (1, 6) " etc.¹