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Journey into Jainism
The Value of Modesty
After one hundred and sixty years of Veera Nirvana, Bhagawan Mahavira's Emancipation, there was a long famine of twelve years. The Order of the monks was almost disintegrated at that time. The monks hardly got food and milk. Many of the monks even observed lifelong fast as a result. Many others were forgetting their canonical knowledge as a result of hunger and thirst. Bhadrabaahu, who was the successor to Acharya Sambhuutivijay, was the Acharya under whose patronage Muni Sthuulabhadra began his study. Bhadrabaahu and many of his disciples moved to Nepal.
When the famine was over, the monks gathered at Patliputra (Patna) in the state of Bihar where they compiled the first eleven Jain Agamas. Bhadrabaahu was the only one who knew the 12th Agama, the knowledge of which fifteen hundred monks then asked him to impart to them. Five hundred were to be his pupils and the rest were to be in attendance. Sthuulabhadra was one of the 500 monks. They started the study but soon got tired and quit it but it was Sthuulabhadra alone who studied eight earlier scriptures with determination.
Once when he asked Bhadrabaahu, "How much have I still to study ?” Bhadrabaahu replied, "You have learnt only a drop out of the vast ocean." Muni Sthuulabhadra worked with redoubled energy and learned ten scriptures.
