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Shri Ashtapad Maha Tirth - II
and the library in Dharamshala in Himachal. The Jain Munis, Sadhus, Yogis living in the Himalayas and many other spiritual leaders residing all over India and abroad provided useful information. Some of the ancient scriptures surveyed like "Kalapsutra" on page 199 clearly states that "Arhatrishabha", the Kasalin, attained parinirvana while sitting cross legged in meditation on the summit of mount Ashtapad". Similarly, Shri HemchandraCharya provided detailed description of Ashtapad palace built by King Bharat as described in Granth I.
The review of ancient literature confirms that Rushabhdev attained Nirvana from Ashtapad and a palace/temple was built by King Bharat in his father's memory and the palace existed at least until 2600 years ago when Gautam Swami visited the temple. He climbed up with the help of sun rays. He stayed overnight and worshiped all twenty-four Tirthankar Pratimaji. Taking in consideration all these facts from the scriptures, one thinks that Ashtapad existed 2600 years ago and it survived thousands and even lacs of years since Bharat Chakravarti had built it after the Nirvana of Bhagwan Rushabhdev on Ashtapad. Dr. Kumarpalbhai Desai, in his foreword has done a critical analysis of all the scriptures and has evaluated the views of modern researchers and authors.
III. Human Life, Growth of Civilization and Religion
In January of 1995 a team of international geologists working on climate shift and solar radiations have hypothesized in a BBC documentary that the human life may have been formed in Tibet3. The finding of Ms. Maureen Raymo of M.I.T at Cambridge, MA appeared in Hong Kong based South China Morning Post sometime in January of 1995. All human life is formed out of the uplift of the Tibetan plateau*. In addition, famous geologists Medlikar, Blenford & Lampburse have considered Himalaya to be native place of all human beings. Prof. L.V. Holstead of Nigeria also thinks that the human civilization may have originated from Himalaya. According to Mr. Parjitar, human civilization started near Kailash3. However, no formal archaeological studies have been conducted to investigate this hypothesis.
It is believed that all the four religions i.e. Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Bon Po flourished at the footsteps of Kailash. According to MIT research and other reports, civilizations started here. As for local history, the Shang Shung Empire flourished in those days. One also has to believe both had their roots in Kailash. Bon Po religion is the indigenous religion of the area which has lot of similarity with Jain religion. Further review and research on Bon Po religion and studying the relation between Shang and Jian-Tibetan people is continuing and we hope to find some useful information about Rushabhdev's era in Kailash region.
IV. Agriculture and Lord Rushabhdev
During the early period of human civilization, man was completely dependent on nature for all his needs. The nature which includes trees and forests provided almost all that the man needed at that point of time. Jain scripture and mythology, KALP VRUKSHA or Trees describe this phenomenon. Jain scriptures further describes that Rushabhdev taught ASI, MASI & KRISI
All this material collected were put together in XX volumes. Two DVDs were supplied with Granth-I. Dr. Kumarpal Desai article in the beginning of this Granth provides additional details.
3
(Vol XII / Ch 86 Art H/ Pg. 5467-5583), See DVD
4
(Vol IV/ Ch 21, Art L/Pg. 1231), See DVD
5
(Vol IV/21F/P.1193-1201), See DVD
Final conclusion - Looking for the Lost Tirth
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