The extinct school of Makkhali Gosala: all beings are ripened by niyati, strict fate, and no effort of priest or ascetic can hasten or delay what fate has fixed.
The Ajivika school is extinct, and its founder Makkhali Gosala is known through Jain and Buddhist sources, not through any text of the school itself; its doctrine of niyati, strict fate, is likewise reported by rivals. The Ajivikas practised a severe asceticism for many centuries, received royal patronage, and carved caves in the Barabar hills that still stand, before the school faded from the record in the second millennium.
Sources
Primary
- The Jain Bhagavati Sutra and the Buddhist Samannaphala Sutta, the rival sources that report the school.
Secondary
- A. L. Basham, History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas.
How this compares to Christianity
How does this branch relate to the historic Christian faith?
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