Jain Journal 1967 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 17

148
JAIN JOURNAL
Mahavira obtained the degree of knowledge called manahparyāya ; and he resolved to neglect the care of his body for twelve years, bearing with equanimity all pleasures and pains, whether arising from divine powers, from men or from animals. The twelve years duly passed in blameless wandering, the practice of religious discipline, and the patient endurance of pain and pleasure. It was in the thirteenth year that Mahavira, seated in deep meditation beside a śāla tree, near the town Grmbhikagrama, attained to nirvana, and the unobstructed, infinite and supreme knowledge and intuition of a Kevalin (syn. Jina, Arhat). Then he became aware of all states of gods or men or demons, whence they came and whither they go, their thoughts and deeds; he saw and knew all circumstances and conditions of the whole universe of living things.
When the venerable ascetic Mahavira had thus reached the highest intuition and knowledge, the time had come for him to teach the doctrine of the Jinas. To this end the gods prepared for him a samavasarana or preaching hall, and entering this by the eastern gate, he took his seat upon the throne, and taught the Divine Law to gods and men.
During a period of nearly thirty years following, Mahavira wandered to and fro, spending the rainy season in different cities, founding a great community of monks and lay votaries, and teaching the five great vows, the doctrine of the six classes of living beings, and so forth. At the end of that time, in the town of Papa, the venerable ascetic Mahavira died, cutting asunder the ties of birth, old age and death, becoming a Siddha, a Buddha, a Mukta, one who is finally released, never more to return, entering the paradise of perfected souls (Işatpragbhārā), above the world and beyond the heavens of the gods.
Reprinted from Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, the Catalɔgue of the Indian Collections in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Vol. IV, Boston, 1924, pp. 5-12. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.