History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c22.s2.12

c22.s2.12

From this passage we obtain a clear idea of the theory, called by the commentator Avicalita-nityatvam, or unchanging permanence, which, for the Ājīvika, is said to obscure all knowledge of the truth.² Every phase of a process is always present. Just as the stars still exist after the sun has risen, so in a soul which has attained salvation its earthly births are still present.³ Nothing is destroyed, and nothing is produced.⁴ Events are rigidly fixed.⁵ The doctrine of Niyati had developed far from that of Makkhali Gosāla in the Pāli scriptures. Not only are all things determined, but their change and development is a cosmic illusion.