$JES 904 Compendium of Jainism (Jain Academic Bowl Manual 3rd Edition)

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

Page 308

F01 Story - Tirthankars
04 - Bhagwan Mallinäth
king was very impressed by the portrait, fell in love with Malli, and decided to make princess Malli his wife. He sent a marriage proposal to King Kumbha of Mithilä. In the same manner the kings of Ayodhyä, Champä, Käshi, Kämpilypur and Shrävasti also learned of the exceptional beauty of princess Malli and sent marriage proposals. After considering these proposals, King Kumbha did not find any of them suitable for Malli and rejected them all. This angered the six kings, who decided to conquer the city of Mithilä together in order to get princess Malli. King Kumbha faced them with all his might but he could not withstand the combined strength of the invading forces. He retreated back to his kingdom and closed the gates of the city. The invading forces then laid siege on Mithilä, but the city would not be able to withstand the siege for long. When princess Malli came to know of the situation, she contemplated on the issue. Gifted with an enlightened mind, she realized that the root cause of the problem lay in her earlier life. She recalled her life as King Mahäbal and realized that due to their deep affection for her in their previous lives, all six of the kings even now desired to be near her. Malli decided that since she was the cause of the problem, she herself should find a solution. She requested her father not to worry and to leave everything to her. Upon remembering that the palace had a hall with six doors, Malli came up with a plan. Behind each door she arranged beautifully furnished rooms. The doors of the hall were fitted with a fine screen through which people sitting in the rooms could look into but not see what was happening in the other five rooms. Malli commissioned a statue of herself so lifelike that anyone looking at the statue would believe that it was the princess herself. The statue was hollow with a hole at the top which could be covered tightly. The statue was placed in the middle of the hall and a maidservant was asked to put a morsel of food twice a day within its cavity and then close its top immediately. Then, Malli requested her father to send invitations to all six kings to come to the hall to meet her. The plan was to invite them to the hall in the evening and have them wait in the room assigned to them. At the appropriate time, all of the kings came and occupied their respective rooms. As they glanced through the screen, they immediately noticed the beautiful statue of Malli. Each of them thought it was Princess Malli herself and anxiously waited to go inside. They also noticed that Malli was far more beautiful than they had expected and fell even more deeply in love with her. As they were waiting, princess Malli entered the hall through a secret tunnel and, standing behind the statue, opened the top of the cavity. The food that had been put in the statue had rotted and emitted a foul odor. The smell was so obnoxious that the kings had to cover their nose. Thereupon the real Malli presented herself and asked why they could not stand the smell of the person whom they loved so much. They admitted that they could not bear the foul odor. Malli then explained that the food she ate was the same food in the statue. The food in her body did not stink because her soul prevented the rotting. However, when her soul would leave the body, her body too would start to decay. It is the nature of the body to degenerate, decay, and disintegrate. Malli asked the kings, "What is the purpose of being attached to a body when it is destined to rot eventually? Is it not worthwhile to pursue something that will last forever?" As the kings stood there in amazement, she explained that in their past lives they were seven very close friends who had done everything together. Upon hearing this, the kings recalled their past lives and what they had renounced. The seven of them now felt an acute sense of detachment for the short-lived worldly life. They all decided to renounce the world in order to enhance the spiritual pursuit that they had left undone in the earlier life. Very elaborate arrangements were made for the renunciation ceremony of Princess Malli. She gave up everything and adopted self-initiation at a place known as Sahasrämravan. She destroyed all of her destructive Karma (Ghäti Karmas that affect the nature and quality of the soul) in a very short time and attained keval-inän (omniscience) on the very same day, becoming the 19th Tirthankar of the Jain religion. Thereafter she traveled throughout the country for a long time to show the path of liberation to others. Ultimately, she attained liberation on Mount Sametshikhar. The Shvetämbar tradition believes that Tirthankar Mallinäth was a female and the other 23 Tirthankars were male. Idols of Tirthankars represent the qualities of the Arihantas and not their physical body.
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Compendium of Jainism - 2015