The Greek found nothing out of the ordinary in 'street philosophy'; after all, Alexander had been tutored by the great Aristotle. They also found nothing out of the ordinary in male nakedness since there was no concept of shame associated with the body. The word 'gymnos' - naked - can be found in gymnasium - a place to exercise naked.
As happens many times, it was the conjunction of two common things that felt, maybe, odd: naked philosophers...
We can easily imagine those gymnosophists to be the ancestors of modern naga babas.
One Greek philosopher, a member of Alexander's court, seemed to be especially struck by Indian philosophy: Pyrrho of Elis, known today as the founder of skepticism.
Not much is known today about Pyrrho. In fact, what remains of his philosophy is a fourth-hand report: a summary of Pyrrhonism which was preserved by Eusebius, quoting Aristocles, quoting Pyrrho's student Timon, in what is known as the "Aristocles passage:"
"Whoever wants to live well must consider these three questions: First, how are pragmata (ethical matters, affairs, topics) by nature? Secondly, what attitude should we adopt towards them? Thirdly, what will be the outcome for those who have this attitude?" Pyrrho's answer is that "As for pragmata they are all adiaphora (undifferentiated by a logical differentia), astathmeta (unstable, unbalanced, not measurable), and anepikrita (unjudged, unfixed, undecidable). Therefore, neither our sense-perceptions nor our doxai (views, theories, beliefs) tell us the truth or lie; so we certainly should not rely on them. Rather, we should be adoxastous (without views), aklineis (uninclined toward this side or that), and akradantous (unwavering in our refusal to choose), saying about every single one that it no more is than it is not or it both is and is not or it neither is nor is not."
This exposition has led Christopher Beckwith to find some parallel with the Buddhist three marks of existence: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), anatta (absence of an inherent, independent self), and to infer an influence of early Buddhism on Pyrrhonism.
While there is a clear formal similarity - three characteristics that are negatively defined - and we can equate adiaphora with anatta and astathmeta with anicca, anepikrita and the following consequences, which seem to be the core of Pyrrho's thought, remain unpaired, as does the Buddhist view of suffering.
We can find, however, a perfect parallel between anepikrita and one of the tenets of a less known religion that was contemporary with Buddhism: Jainism. These are
Ahimsa - non-violence,
Aparigraha - non-possessiveness,
Tapas - asceticism, and
Anekantavada - many-sidedness, pluralism, pluralism of viewpoints.
Not only anekantavada is strikingly analogous to Pyrrho's anepikrita but the primitive Jains (and some today) were naked ascetics - gymnosophists.
I will return to Jainism some time in the future. This beautiful religion deserves to be better known in the West. For the time being, you can freely browse the online Jain Library.
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