Lord Mahavira and His Teachings

Author(s): Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 29

Lord Mahavira and His Teachings
biography. If it is difficult, or beyond the means of historical study, to know all about Mahavira, in my humble opinion, it is more important to understand and put into practice the principles. preached by Mahavira than to discuss this detail or that about his personal life.
In this connection, you will excuse me, if I make a little digression or introducing to you some aspects of Vaisali (spelt as Vaishali), the birthplace of Mahavira. The town was at its height of prosperity, and by its association with Mahavira it became far-famed in the religious world of India. Teachers from Vaishali preached great principles for the uplift of humanity and lived an austere life of fasts and penances; and Mahavira stood out as the most prominent of his contemporaries. According to the Mahavastu, Buddha sought his first teachers in Alara and Uddaka at Vaishalf and "even started his life as a Jain under their teachings." After discovering his Middle Path, he became more and more honoured at Vaishali, receiving even royal reception; the city built for him a Kutagara-shala, a pinnacled rest house, in its suburban park known as the Mahavana. It is at Vaishali that the Second Buddhist Council was held; and it came to be looked upon as a holy spot .where differences in the Sangha could be ironed out. His celebrated disciple Amrapali was a resident of Vaishali at which place she bequeathed her park to Buddha and the community. Vaishali had its political sigạificance too. It had a Republican Government, and King Chetaka, the Licchavi Republican President
organized a Federation of Republics comprising Mallakis, and 18 Gana-rajas of Kashikoshala, besides