Bhagvana Mahavira

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

Page 42

Bhagavan Mahavira
of taking meals. During his fasts, he would stay in the forests and enter a village only when he had to seek food. This routine continued during the period of his sādhana.
Bhagavān Mahāvīra performed sādhanā for twelve years and six and a half months. Most of this period was spent in meditation and he spoke little. For a few years he lived alone and for some time he was accompanied by Gośālaka. He patiently bore the inclemency of the weather as well as hardships caused by men, beasts and gods. His steadfastness was tested time and again, but he never lost it. He had delved so deep in his soul that these outward happenings would not affect him at all.
Emancipation of a Slave-Girl
It was the twelfth year of Bhagavān Mahāvīra's sädhanā. He was putting up in Kaušāmbi. He had developed supersensory knowledge ever since his birth. The moment he became an ascetic, he developed another kind of knowledgethe perception of thoughts of other people's minds. He was now about to attain the kevalajñāna-omniscience. At this juncture, he decided to perform an experiment. This experiment was connected with an event. He had been performing sädhana in a state of reticence and even through it, he accomplished the good of others. Women and slaves led a wretched life those days. Religious prejudices had deprived women of the privilege of being treated equal to men. The misinterpretation of the doctrine of karma had resulted in a miserable existence for the slaves. The masters treated the slaves as cattle and could punish them in any cruel way they liked. They could be sold like cattle, tortured, mutilated and even punished with death. Neither the law nor any conscious religious opposition could interfere with this cruelty. This orgy of violence continued for centuries together in the name of custom, religion and fate.
On the first day of the dark half of the lunar month of