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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
control over his body, mind and speech as he bad set upon selfpurification, which is a necessary pre-requisite for liberation of the self from the body. He was unmindful of social status and ignored the distinction between the high and the low. Once he accepted food from a girl by name Candanā who was a slave in the house of a rich man by name Vșşabhadatta but was pure in heart and conduct. He did this when numerous rich house-holders were eagerly waiting to offer him food. Thus he tried by example to abolish distinctions based on birth and status.
He spent twelve years of his life in observing austerities and long spells of deep meditations. He went to Jşmbhikāgrāma or modern Jhiria in Bihar and took his seat under a sāl tree on the bank of the river Rijukula. He became engrossed in Sukladhyana or lustrous meditation and destroyed the four destructive Karmas : Darśanāvaraniya, Jnānāvaraniya, Mohaniya and Antarāya. He attained Kevala-jnāna or Omniscience. It was the 10th day of the bright half of Vaisakha when he attained supreme knowledge and intuition.
When the Venerable Ascetic Mahāvira had become a Jina and Arhat, he was a Kevalin, omniscient and comprehending all objects; he knew and saw all conditions of the world, of gods, men and demons: whence they come, whither they go, whether they are born as men or animals or become gods or hellbeings, the ideas, the thoughts of their minds, the food, doings, desires, the open and secret deeds of all the living beings in the whole world; he, the Arhat, for whom there is no secret, knew and saw all conditions of all living beings in the world, what they thought, spoke, or did any moment.
On coming to know that the Lord had obtained Omniscience, large number of people collected to worship the Arhat. Amongst them was one Indrabhūti Gautama, a reputed scholar in Vedic lore. The first sermon was delivered on the Vipulācala hill near Rājagļha. The Svetāmbara version is that it was delivered
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