Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Boolchand
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society

Page 46

(39 ) effect of sinful deeds committed in former existences, and the practice o the threefold self-rest aint, of the body, speech and mind, as a means of stopp ng the produciion of new Karma. Ás justified forms of penances, Mahavira was prepared to recognise only 397777 ( as ng , ऊणोदरी (limiting the food that one eats , भिक्षाचर्या (eating only begged food), HafTunt (abstaining from special items of food which one most en oys), *1970er (bodily austerity), fattar avo dance of temptation by control of senses and mind),
s h (confession and penance , fans (reverence), àqlara (service rendered to the aged and the helpless), F9EJit (the study o the scriptures), s (meditation), 1TH (feeling and showing absolute indifference to the body and its needs). He gave no honoured place to practices like the tending of a fire; the exorcising' of evil spirits ; the performance of agnihotras ; the taking of regular baths ; the living under water, or in caves, or on trees ; the cating of roots, leaves, moss, flowers, or bark of trees, or of grass ; the besmearing o body with ashes, etc., just the practices in which the other parivrajaka orders had gloried. It appears that Parsva's monks had been fairly lax in their morals and discipline, but they were far more regulated in their conduct than the other parivrajakas, for there is an occasional mention in the Jain texts of the weaker spirits in Parava's order finding it hard to observe the rules and consequently joining the other parivrajaka sects with less rigorous rules of discipline. But it is cer!ain that the austerities prescribed by Vahavira for himself, and later on for the members of his Order, presented an infinitely harder code of penances and were combined with a far more rigorous discipline of ethical and spiritual conduct than was prevalent in any pariirajaka sect at that time ; and there is no doubt that Mahavira earned the hostility of the other sects for doing so.
As regards the persecution of Mahavira by the tempter-gods, it is a reminder of the story of Mara ia Buddha's life. Mara is looked upon in Buddhist literature as the supreme lord of all evil, the chief seducer