Bhagvana Mahavira

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

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Bhagavān Mahāvīra
Akampita and Acalabhrātā were the heads of the eighth, and Metārya and Prabhāsa of the ninth.
The great nun, Candanabālā, headed the nun's order. Inspired by the teachings of Bhagavān Mahāvīra women belonging to all the castes, families and classes became initiated as the members of the Order. Several queens of Sreņika, the Emperor of Magadha, were initiated. Queens of other kings and wives of the feudal lords and merchant-princes also joined the Order of nuns. The great nun Candanabālā, as the able leader of the nuns, efficiently guided them.
The Sangha (Order) of Bhagavān Mahāvīra was devoted to all the three ways of practising religion-faith, knowledge and spiritual conduct. The administration of the Order was in the charge of several authorities. The upādhyāyas (perceptors) were responsible for the dissemination of knowledge. The pravartakas (administrators) looked after the management. The gaņāvacchedakas looked after the spreading of the mission, and the development of the Order. The sthaviras or the eldermen were responsible for the spiritual progress of the initiated monks as also for inculcating perseverance among them whenever they were smitten by impatience. The pravartinis looked after the nuns' affairs. Thus monks and nuns holding different posts fulfilled their responsibilities. The administration of the monastic order was run on the republican system
Bhagavān Mahāvīra effected a synthesis between the perspectives of pragmatic truth and objective truth. Some of the religious organizations devoted themselves exclusively to objective truth. They lost sight of pragmatic truth which forms the basis of religious organization. The result was that their organizations became slack and then disintegrated. Those of the religious organizations which devoted themselves exclusively to pragmatic truth lost sight of objective truth and rendered their organization devoid of a spiritual basis. Bhagavān Mahāvira was an exponent of both the