________________
Epoc-maker Tirthankar Mahavir
Mahavir was a prodigal child. He observed the social conditions with open eyes and resolved to remove all prevailing evils including ignorance, social ills, slavery, animal sacrifice and deplorable condition of women.
He was a revoiutionary visionary: he pursued equanimity. He was averse to any sort of violence. He deplored untouchability based on casteism. He supported liberation of women and advocated equal rights for them. He considered religious debates to be useless controversies. He professed assimilation and equality. He believed that such debates and social ills are born out of misunderstanding and misinterpreting of fundamentals.
During his twelve and a half years of spiritual practices he pondered over all these problems and found effective solutions.
The long period of his spiritual practices was infested with hurdles. At every step he faced grave afflictions and troubles. Not humans alone, even gods and animals caused him pain.
But he won over all these through his lofty practice of equanimity. The stream of his compassion and universal well being transformed all poison into ambrosia, gods bowed down and sinners were filled with repentance.
With the establishment of the religious ford, he opened the gates of his religious order to all human beings. He said that Brahmin, kshatriya, yaishra and stundra and even anaria (rustic aborigines) were worthy of doing spiritual practices. To remove intellectual differences he propounded the principle of Svadiad. He established the order of chim su and gave due importance to the status of women.
In this Sutra are mentioned 23 female and 16 male seekers: these include kshatrivas as well as raish yus.
Vanquishing the prevailing complexities and social evils, Tirthankar Mahavir launched a new era based on equanimity, equality and ahimsa. The tormented humanity got a pleasurable relief. The lofty path of bliss propagated by him suill prevails and will remain so in the future. This is the everlasting uniqueness of the path shown by Tirthankar Mahavir, the epoch-maker.
Antakriddasha Mahima
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
