________________
Non-Violence : A Way of Life went on his round, begging for alms in that city. He went from house to house, but returned not accepting any food from any house. In this way six months passed by. For as long a period as six months he did not accept even a grain of food. The people of Kaushambi thought that Mahavira was like a fish dying of thirst in an ocean full of water.
Everyone in the kingdom; the king, the minister, the merchant, the monk began to weigh his own Karma. Everyone began to think "What is an evil deed ? What is a good deed ? What is justice ? What is injustice ?"
One day the news came that Bhagwan had accepted boiled unsplit black beans from Chandanbala who was a slave in the household of merchant Dhanavaha. On hearing this, people started streaming to the place of the merchant Dhanavaha. But after some time they were surprised to find that the woman, whom they had mistaken for a slave woman, was actually the daughter of the king of Champanagar. Her mother was the sister of the king of Kaushambi. She was now a prisoner taken in the war between Champa and Kaushambi. Seeing this, people exclaimed, “How terrible is war, in which man kills his own kinsfolk."
Mahavira showed to the world the strength of the soul and of the body. Out of his austerity period of twelve and a half years, for 349 days he took only one meal a day. On all the rest of the days, he fasted without taking even water. During this period of severe austerity, he performed one penitential exercise of six months. One penitential exercise of six months less five days. Nine penitential exercises of four months. Two penitential exercises of three months, two penitential exercises of two and
121
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
