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Jamali : His Life and point of difference from lord Mahâvîra
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After wandering from village to village for about a period of three years, he arrived on a certain day at a town Sravasti by name, and resorted to Kosthaka sanctuary of that place. It is here that an event, which proved to be a turning-point in his life took place. During his stay one day he took very tasteless, inferior, rough, stale and musty food which was brought after the time to taking meal was over, and was taken regardless of the quantity thereof. This resulted in his falling ill seriously. The disease took an acute form in no time and he felt that his whole body was burning due to bilious fever. He called his fellow monks and asked them to spread a bedding for him. They faithfully obeyed the order and engaged themselves with the work so that he might have a complete rest. But it could not be carried on expeditiously as he had wished and the severity of pain was increasing every moment. He called them again and said, “Has the bed been spread or is it being spread ?"22 They replied,23 “O beloved of gods, it is not spread yet, but is being spread.24 Now doubt crept in Jamali's mind. He said to himself, “Lord Mahâvîra has said and explained thus : what is moving is called 'moved, what is rising or maturing is known risen' or 'matured', what is partially destroyed is said to be ‘partially destoryed', etc. This statement is false. It is obviously seen that so long as the bedding is being spread, it is not spoken of as spread. Hence how can the above doctrine of Lord Mahâvîra be said to be held true ?” Then he gathered together other monks and proclaimed the falsity of Mahâvîra's preaching. Some of them expressed their faith in his conclusions, while others disliked it, and left his company and joined Lord Mahâvîra, who was at Purnabhadra sanctuary of Campa City.
After some time, when Jamali was completely cured of the disease, he also left Sravasti and wandering from village to village reached Campa. He kept himself standing neither near nor far from the Lord and spoke thus, “I do not abide like 'Chadmastha' (a person possessing imperfect knowledge i.e. who has not gained omniscience) as many of your 'Chadmastha' houseless disciples do. I do tourings like an Arhat or Jina' or 'Kevalin' who has attained infinite knowledge and infinite intuition.” It shows that Jamali, in emulation of other Kevalins, had an ambition to be
