Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Bool Chand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

Page 41

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Order. At the same time it appears that he did not abide rigorously by all the specified rules of the Order: there is a tradition current in Jain literature that a Tirthankara does not adopt a guru and, presumably, the prevailing practice of an earlier Tirthankara's Order. There seems to be no doubt that the monks of Parsva's order wore clothes. In the Uttaradhyayana sutra there is an account of a meeting between Kesi, a young Sramana of the school of Parsva, and Gautama, the chief disciple of Mahavira, in which 'knowledge and virtuous conduct were for ever brought to eminence and subjects of the greatest importance were settled'. The matter that had been occasioning controversy was that Parsva's law recognised only four vows and permitted the wearing by the monks of an under and an upper garment, while Mahavira's law enjoined five vows and forbade the wearing of clothes altogether; and Gautama explained away the difficulty by stating that "the various outward marks of religious men introduced to distinguish them do not count towards final liberation but only knowledge, faith and right conduct. In conformity with the rules of Parsva's order, Mahavira also wore clothes for a year and a month, but then adopted nudity and stuck to it throughout the rest of his life. The Digambara tradition credits him with having adopted nudity from the start.
His habits of life during this period may be briefly mentioned. He went about naked and without any outfit of any kind. eH did not even possess a bowl for collecting food which he collected in the hollow of his hands. He completely neglected his body and abandoned care of it. Many insects crawled on his person, bit him and caused him pain, but he bore it with patience. People were shocked at the sight of him; they shouted at him and at time even struck him. He bore everything patiently and with equanimity. For days and months he would observe silence and and remain absorbed in his own thoughts. The Digambara tradition mentions that he observed the
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