Jainism by Vividus

Author(s): Ramnik V Shah
Publisher: Ramnik V Shah Canada

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Starting with the dreams that the mothers-to-be of Tirthankaras have when they are conceived, the various descriptions of what takes place when they are actually born (substituting the real one by another earthly baby, removing the baby to far-off mountains in the far-off corners of the universe of [maybe, to another planet in outer space], the baby's ablution in which gods including the chiefs participate, the various ceremonies and the materials and the objects used in the process of this extra ordinary ablution, together with the description of the whole atmosphere), their length of life, their height of bodies and the intervals stated above between each of them on the planet earth: all these appear to give credence to what the author Von Daniken and others like him are at present attempting to establish viz that there does appear to be an element of truth in the idea of periodic visits of life (gods?) from outer space to this planet of ours, the earth.
In one of the old Jaina Canonical texts, Kalpa Sutra, by Bhadrabahu, (Prof. Hermann Jacobi: Jaina Sutras: Parts 1 & 11, first published in 1884) in the section dealing with "Lives of The Jinas," biographies of only four out of twenty-four Tirthankaras are narrated and in each of them it is stated that previous to being born here on the earth, each "descended from Heaven" (the world of Gods) where he lived," in a great Vimana i.e. space ship (Rshabhanatha, the first in a Vimana called "Sarvarthasiddha"; Arishtanemi, the twenty second in a Vimana called "Aparajita": Parshvanatha the twenty-third descended from the Gods' tenth world called "Pranata Kalpa" though the name of his Vimana is not mentioned and Mahavira the twenty-fourth in a Vimana called "Pushpottara") and in the middle of the night at appropriate disposition of the stars, took the form of an embryo and entered the womb of respective mothers.
In the case of Mahavira, even a further astounding story is mentioned. Transfer by Gods of his embryo from the womb
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