Lord Mahavira Vol 01

Author(s): S C Rampuria
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

Page 78

Personality of Lord Mahâvîra and his Sermon at Champa
of water or a dew-drop on the kusa tip, threw out their transient of silver, gold, animals, grains, army, vehicles, cash, granneries, state, kingdom, districts, harems, fourfold wealth life ganima, etc., bullion, gems, jewels, pearls, conches, corals, etc., and joined the holy order as monks. Some of these were initiated into monkhood hardly a fortnight back, some a month back, some two, three, till eleven months back, some one, two, three years back, still some who were intiated many years back.
69
In that period, at that time, Sramana Bhagavan Mahâvîra had many monks in his order. Some of them were in possession of extra-sensory knowledge, till supreme knowledge. Some were powerful in mind, some in words and some in body. Some were capable to curse and bless by mind, some by words and some by body. The phlegm of some cured all ailments. Like-wise the dirt, urine, stool, touch or any other like hair, nail, etc., of some others were capable to cure all ailments. Some possessed scriptural knowledge as if it was in a store, and others could do the same as if it was in a seed. Some had the capacity to recollect hundreds of parallel sutras on hearing a single one, while some others were capable of holding many words from different sources. For people at large, some were as sweet as milk, as and when they spoke, some were like honey removing all dirt, some like clarified butter (ghee) attracted people to the subject of their discourse. With some, the supply of food was never exhausted whatever be the number of guests (invitees). Some had a limited, while others an exhaustive, knowledge of the psychology of others. Some commanded the power to trasform their body as they pleased, some had a tremendous capacity to walk, while some, like a Vidyâdhara, were capable to fly.
Some had performed kanakavali penance and some ekâvalî; some had performed laghusingha-niskrîdita and some mahalayasing haniskridita; some had performed bhadra-pratimâ, and some mahabhadra-pratimâ, some sarvatobhadra-pratima and some ayambila-vardhamana. Some had performed bhiksupratimâ for a month, some for two months, three months, till seven months, some for one seven days-and-nights, till three seven days-and-nights, some for a whole days and night and some for a single night. Some of the monks had to their credit seven times seven days-and-nights of bhiksu-pratimâ, some eight times eight