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Lord Mahâvîra
had both passed away. After the death of his parents he waited until some two years later when their loss had become bearable to his elder brother, and then asked his permission to leave the palace. (The Digambaras believe that he became a monk while his parents were still alive). It is believed that during these last two years in the palace he spent a considerable time in self- analysis, rather than in mundane, everyday pursuits.
He then left home to search for the root of all problems, i.e. to understand human nature and to study the universe in general. Obviously, his social status and environment whilst living in the palace was unsuited to this quest.
Pursuit of the Goal and Enlightement
He devoted the subsequent twelve and a half years to his research with intense single-mindedness. As he felt that it would assist his meditation, he lived very frugally, wandering from place to place wearing only a single garment and frequently fasting. He also reduced his other needs, e.g. by removing his hair by hand. So intense was his concentration on his goal, that when his garment was accidentally caught on a thorn bush and pulled off, during 13 months of renunciation, he remained naked. (However, according to the Digambaras, he removed his clothes at the time of renunciation.)
Another incident showing his single-mindedness of purpose relates to how he was meditating in a standing posture in a farm and the farmer who had his cows grazing around him, asked him to look after them whilst he was away. Since he was in a state of deep meditation, Mahâvîra did not notice that the cows were wandering away. When the farmer came back, he asked Mahâvîra about the missing cows and since he was under a vow of silence, he did not reply. The already upset farmer was further infuriated and he hammered two wooden nails through Mahâvîra's ear to punish him for this lapse. But even that action did not break Mahâvîra's silence, and Mahâvîra remained compassionate towards him.
It is said that he remained in total solitude until Mikkhali Gosala, who had heard of Mahâvîra's outstanding abilities, searched and found him. Gosâla was a travelling story-teller and a follower of the fatalist doctrine of the Âjivîka sect of which he
