$JES 302 Jain Philosophy Level 3 Book

Author(s): JAINA Education Committee
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

Page 16

LORD MAHÄVIR AND HIS TEACHINGS
Lord Mahävir had an elder brother named Nandivardhan and a sister named Sudarshanä. King Siddhärtha began to prosper ever since Queen Trishalä became pregnant. Therefore, his parents gave him the name of Vardhamän, meaning, "increasing".
From his early childhood, he was found to be unusually intelligent, fearless, affectionate, and compassionate. At school, he hardly needed any instructions. Once, when he was playing with his friends, a big snake appeared in the field. His friends were scared and ran away when they saw the snake but Vardhamän was fearless. He caught the snake by the tail and threw it away. Another time a giant monster came to frighten him, but Vardhaman was unmoved. He was popularly known as Mahävir since he showed high degree of courage and fearlessness. He was also known by his family name as Jnätaputra.
At a mature age, he married a princess named Yashodä and eventually had a daughter named Priyadarshana. (According to Digambar tradition he did not marry). By that time, he firmly realized that worldly happiness and pleasures do not last and are based mostly on the inconvenience, miseries, and unhappiness of others. He therefore planned to renounce the worldly life in search of a solution to eliminate pain, sorrow, and sufferings of life and to find true happiness. However, he knew that his parents would be very unhappy if he becomes a monk and renounces the family and all his possessions. He therefore decided not to renounce during their lifetime. His parents passed away when he was 28. He therefore was ready to renounce, but postponed it for two more years at the request of his elder brother.
Hence, at the age of 30 he renounced the worldly life and became a monk. Mahävir spent the next twelve and half years in deep silence and meditation to conquer his desires, feelings, and attachments. He carefully avoided harming or annoying other living beings including animals, birds, and plants. Also during this time he observed severe austerities, fasting for most of the time, moving from place to place on foot, and peacefully faced all types of hardships.
During this period, he progressed spiritually and ultimately he destroyed four destructive (Ghäti) Karmas and realized perfect perception, perfect knowledge, perfect power, and total bliss. This realization is known as Kevaljnän (omniscience) or perfect enlightenment. Now Mahävir became Lord Mahävir or Bhagawän Mahävir or Mahavir Swämi.
Lord Mahävir spent the next thirty years traveling on bare feet around India preaching the eternal truth he had realized to the people. The ultimate objective of his teaching is how one can attain total freedom from the cycle of birth, life, pain, misery, and death, and achieve the permanent blissful state of one's self. This blissful state is also known as liberation, nirvana, absolute freedom, or Moksha.
Lord Mahävir explained that from eternity, every living being (soul) is ignorant about his/her true-self and also is in a bondage of karmic particles. These karmic particles are continuously accumulated by our good or bad deeds. Under the influence of karma, the soul is habituated to seek pleasures in materialistic belongings and possessions. This is the deep-rooted cause of self-centered violent thoughts, deeds, anger, hatred, greed, and such other vices. These result in further accumulation of karmas.
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JAIN PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE I