Jain Journal 1971 01

SR No.: 520021
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1971
Total Pages: 54
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 48

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One day, as he was sitting upon the roof of his palace, he heard of the arrival of Jagannatha, the Tirthankara (Saviour). Removing his imperial insignia, he humbly went to greet him. After receiving instruction from him, he became enlightened and decided to devote himself to salvation. He took the vow with Jagannatha, became an accomplished disciple (Gitärtha) and continued to perfect himself still further. Once, when he stood with a Jina image in forest Khiragiri, he was attacked by a lion, inhabited by the soul of the Bhilla Kurangaka, who had been re-incarnated in the lion's body after leaving hell. He died forgivingly was reborn as a god in the Mahaprabha Vimana heaven, but the lion, at his own death, went to the fourth hell.
Sarga 5: Early Life of the Arhat Parsvanatha
The soul of the lion, after passing through the wretched animal existences, was reincarnated as Katha, the son of Brahmin, named Rora. Both his parents died as soon as he was born so that he had to be brought up by charity. As a grown man, he also carried on a miserable existence, wandering from house to house, shy and given to fear. One day observing some rich men, resplendent in their finery, he became disgusted with life. Concluding that the rich owed their opulence to their penances in some previous existence, he decided to follow their example, turned ascetic, and subsisted on the roots of plants.
JAIN JOURNAL
The soul of Suvarnabhanu, on the other hand, was reincarnated in the womb of Vamadevi, queen of the mighty Iksvaku king Asvasena of Varanasi. The soul descended on the fourth day of the dark half of the month of Caitra, under the constellation Visakha. Fourteen great dreams of the queen, announced to her the arrival of a glorious and virtuous son. At the end of an undisturbed period of pregnancy, the queen, delivered a son on the tenth of the black half of the month Pausa, under the constellation Visakha. All Nature rejoiced at the event. Indra came from heaven, garlanded and bathed the child. Queen Vama rejoiced in her son. The king, apprised of the happy event, had prisoners released in his honour. The people were jubilant. When the time for name-giving had come, the queen remembered that she had seen in a troubled night a serpent moving by her side (pārśvatah). This she had told the king, who interpreted the serpent as the power of the boy; therefore he named him Parsva.
He grew up with every youthful bodily perfection, because he possessed the twentytwo auspicious characteristics, so that all the accomplishments came to him of themselves. On certain occasion a man,