________________
PART III STORIES PRECEDING BHAGAWAN MAHÄVIR
that stage, I will have to leave everything behind. The only everlasting entity is the soul." He realized that nothing in the world, including his body, really belonged to him and he soon came to a major decision. "Why not do away with my attachment of all the temporary things and instead focus on something that lasts forever like my father did?" Thus, he developed an acute detachment for the worldly life. As per Shvetämbar tradition, this reflection led to the rise of true enlightenment from within. As a result, he attained omniscience, or keval-jnän, in that very room as a lay person. According to Digambar tradition, after he attained an acute detachment of worldly life, he renounced that life and became a monk, immediately achieving keval-jnän. At the end of his life, he attained liberation.
Moral: The focus of this great story is on ego and self-realization. Ego and pride build negative karma and lead one to destructive behavior as detailed in the story. Ego also causes anger and leads one to irrational behavior. Ego and superficial pride must be overcome on the path to enlightenment and omniscience. We should all strive for cultivating humility, one of the fundamental principles of Jainism.
13 - Questions: 1. How many children did Lord Rishabhadev have? Who wanted to become sovereign over all the kings? 2. Who did not want him to be sovereign? What did both of them do? 3. Why did they decide to stop the war? What would they do? 4. What stopped Bähubali from hitting his brother, Bharat, with his fist? 5. What was preventing Bahubali from attaining Keval-jnän? 6. Who helped him understand his mistake? What did they do? 7. What elephant were they singing about?
64
JAIN STORY BOOK
