Heart of Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson

Page 58

32
THE LIFE OF MAHAVIRA
all his property, which can only have been the ordinary possessions of the cadet of a small House, but which the love of his followers has exaggerated into the wealth of a mighty emperor. Then, followed by a train of gods and men, he was carried in a palanquin to the park and, alighting, took his seat on a five-tiered throne, which was so placed as to face the east. There he stripped himself of all his ornaments and finery, flinging them to the attendant god Vaiśramaņa, who caught them up as they fell.
Most Hindu mendicants cut or shave off their hair, but a peculiar and most painful custom of the Jaina is that all ascetics, as a proof of their power of endurance, must tear out their hair by the roots. One Jaina writer declares in his English 'Life of Mahāvira' that 'only those can do it who have no love with their flesh and bones. It is looked on as a sign that henceforth the monk or nun will take no thought for the body.
As Mahāvira performed this crowning act of austerity, Indra, the leader and king of the gods, falling down before the feet of the venerable ascetic, caught up the hairs in a diamond cup and took them to the Ocean of Milk. The saint then did obeisance to all liberated spirits, and vowing to do no sinful act, adopted the holy conduct.3
The Jaina mark with great precision the five degrees of knowledge that lead to Omniscience. Mahāvira, they say, was born with the first three, Mati jñāna, Sruta jñāna,
1 The Jaina believe that when an ascetic who will eventually develop into a Tirthańkara is about to give away his possessions, the god Indra bestows on him all the wealth that has been buried in forgotten treasure stores, in order that the amount to be given away may be worthy of the giver.
This sort of throne is called a Panduśila, and in Jaina temples Mahāvīra's image is generally kept on one.
3 The Kalpa Sitra gives quite a different account, in which it says that Mahāvīra fasted for two-and-a-half days after all the pomp, and then, 'Quite alone, nobody else being present, he tore out his hair, and leaving the house entered the state of houselessness'. Kalpa Sutra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 259.