History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s3.1

c23.s3.1

Another Ājīvika doctrine of little apparent importance, and naïve in its simplicity and triteness, is that of the six inevitables (*anaïkkamaṇijjāim*). These six factors, inevitably accompanying all existence, are said to have been declared by Gosāla immediately after he and the six *disācaras* had codified the Ājīvika scriptures,⁵ and, if we accept the *Bhagavatī Sūtra*’s definition of them, say little for the profundity of those works. The six are: gain (*lābhaṃ*), loss (*alābhaṃ*), joy (*suhaṃ*), sorrow (*dukkhaṃ*), life (*jīviyaṃ*), and death (*maraṇaṃ*).