Jaina Philosophy

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 22

HISTORY OF JAINISM
all his wealth among the poor during a whole year and renounced the world. After observing fast for two days and having put on one garment, Vardhamāna left for a park known as Jñātskhanda in a palanquin named Candraprabhā. He descended from the palanquin under an Asoka tree, took off his ornaments, plucked out his hair in five handfuls and entered the state of houselessness. He wore the garment only for a year and a month and then abandoned it and wandered about naked afterwards.
The Venerable Ascetic Mahāvīra spent his second rainy season in a weaver's shed at Nālandā, a suburb of Rājagrha. Gośāla, the Ajivika, approached the Venerable Ascetic and made a request to admit him as his disciple. Mahāvīra did not entertain his request. Gośāla again approached the Venerable Ascetic when he had left the place at the end of the rainy season. This time his request was, however, accepted and both of them lived together for a considerable period. While at Siddhārthapura, Gośāla uprooted a sesamum shrub and threw it away challenging Mahāvīra's prediction that it would bear fruits. Owing to a lucky fall of rain the shrub came to life again and bore fruits. Seeing this Gośāla concluded that everything is pre-determined and that all living beings are capable of reanimation. Mahāvīra did not favour such generalisations. Gośāla, then, severed his association with Mahāvira and founded his own sect known as Ajivika.
Mahāvīra had travelled up to Lādha in West Bengal. He had to suffer all sorts of tortures in the non-Aryan territory of Vajrabhūmi and Subhrabhūmi. Many of his hardships were owing to the adverse climate, stinging plants and insects and wicked inhabitants who set dogs at him. The Venerable Ascetic had spent his ninth rainy season in the non-Aryan land of the Lādha country.
Mahāvīra passed twelve years of his ascetic life with cquanimity performing hard and long penances and enduring