History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c22.s1.8

c22.s1.8

Jaina criticisms of Ājīvika determinism are based both on logic and common sense. Of the triter sort is the argument of the Uvāsaga Dasāo, attributed to the Jaina layman Kuṇḍakoliya in his debate with the Ājīvika deva.³ The latter praises Gosāla’s determinist theory and disparages Mahāvīra’s doctrine of qualified free-will. Whereupon Kuṇḍakoliya asks the deva whether he attained his own divine status by any efforts on his part. He replies that he obtained heavenly bliss without effort (anuṭṭhāṇeṇam). " Why then," asks Kuṇḍakoliya, " are not those other living beings in whom there is no effort . . . also devas ? "⁴ This argument, though blatantly illogical, is sufficient to convince the deva of the wrongness of his views, but we may be sure that the early Ājīvikas had their rejoinders to such feeble attacks.