Bhagvana Mahavira

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 30

22
Bhagavān Mahāvīra
Mahābbinişkramaņa (The Great Renunciation)
The Wheel of Time revolves ceaselessly producing changes in the states of all things. Poised on this wheel the child becomes young and the young man enters into old age. The young prince arrived at the age of twenty-eight. Having grown old his parents passed away. The royal family was plunged into sorrow as a result of their death. The prince loved his parents, but their death did not affect him at all, The spiritual heights he had attained made him averse to pleasures and pains. He was not a sheer philosopher. He had a direct perception of Truth. He did not take death seriously. It was to him a normal happening in life.
The ties of affection which bound him to his parents broke. His resolve to serve his parents during their life-time had served its purpose. There now arose in him the great desire to renounce the world. He apprised his elder brother of his intention. Nandivardhana was shocked to hear of his plans. His whole being trembled and he began to weep. He had hapdly recovered from the shock of the death of his parents when he was called upon to face a new situation. He knew that relieved by the death of his parents his brother thought it the right time to renounce the world. His mind had already been seized of a spiritual fervour. The death of the near and dear ones does produce a mood of aversion to the world. One who has a spiritual inclination is all the more prone to the desire for renunciation. Nandivardhana felt that his younger brother had been seized of a strong inclination to renounce the world, but he felt nervous and was unwilling to part company with his younger brother at this stage. He would not be able to stand two successive shocks.
Prince Vardhamāna did not like to cause any kind of inconvenience to anybody. His mind was full of love and compassion and this forced him to remain with his family for another two years. He passed through a strange state of mind. He was neither a house-holder nor a recluse during