Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 139

The Gods Named Him "Mahăvira", the Great Hero
119
thirteen years, master of himself, vigilant, his mind absorbed both night and day in an intense concentration.45
In the course of his lengthy journeyings he came to the country of Lādha46 where he had to suffer, not only on account of the climate, wounds caused by sharp grasses and insects of all kinds, but also on account of the hostility of the inhabitants who set their dogs upon him, refused him hospitality, struck him and treated him harshly. Notwithstanding, he, hero of the great inner struggle, remained in serenity,47 and pursued his path, absorbed in dhyāna, mental concentration.48 After long years the daily struggle issued in final victory; he became a jina, a victorious one.
The Acārārga-sūtra I passes over in silence the following period, that of the kevalin and tirthankara. The Kalpa-sūtra recounts briefly certain facts: Mahāvira attained kevala-jñāna, perfect knowledge, during vaisakha (April-May), the second month of summer in the thirteenth year of his ascetic lise.49 His life as a kevalin lasted thirty years, in the course of which he taught the dharma to his disciples, both men and women ascetics, and to numbers of others who, while staying in the world, followed his admonitions. Mention is made of sundry places where he is reputed to have passed the rainy season each year.50 At length, during the fifteenth night of the dark half of the month of kårttika (October-November), while sojourning in Pāpā,
45 etehim muņi sayaņehim, samane asi paterasa väse
rais divas pi jayamāņe, appamatte samāhie jhāti. ASI, 8, 2, 4.
46 A district in the western part of undivided Bangāla.
47 CF. AS 1, 8, 3.
48
Cf AS I, 8, 4, 14-15.
49 Cf. KS 120; AS II, 15, 25-29.
50 Cf. KS 122; PPN, pp. 580-582 for the names of all the places he may have visited.