History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.16

c12.s6.16

Abhayadeva explains three of these eight finalities as having been laid down by Gosāla to impress his followers with the cataclysmic quality of his own impending death²; the first four, on the other hand, were put forward with the even more reprehensible motive of excusing his own delirious conduct in singing, dancing, drinking muddy water, and saluting Hālāhalā.³ The eighth and last was, of course, Gosāla himself. All of them were supposed inevitably to occur at a *jina's nirvāṇa*, according to Ājīvika teaching.