History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s1.119

c23.s1.119

The verb in the final clause of the above passage in the *Bhagavatī* is quoted in its past, present, and future forms.³ This indicates that the Ājīvika cosmos contained many more *mahākappas* even than the enormous figure quoted, and that at any time a soul might complete its 8,400,000 aeons of *saṃsāra* and attain *nirvāṇa*. These *mahākappas* are not the total of universal time, but merely the aeons through which each soul must pass in order to gain salvation.