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Lessons from the Story Some of the lessons of Lord Mahavir's story are given below which one should ponder over from time to time and these will provide great insight into the story and our lives.
The purpose of the story is not to convey that it takes a long time and efforts to achieve Moksha but to emphasise that if right efforts are made in the direction of understanding the nature of pure soul, one can attain Moksha very quickly, even in less than 48 minutes.
The climax and anti-climax of the story are to be noticed, as anyone can pass through such stages. There is nothing new in ups and downs in lives as regulated by karmic bondage.
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Born as grandson of first Thirthankar and then ultimately he himself becomes the last Thirthankar He was the son of Chakravarty King Bharat, who was son of Adinath. He himself becomes Chakravarty later on. He adopted the life of a monk and goes to heaven and also goes to Hell after being the great King. Ate flesh being a lion and taught the whole world the supreme principle of non-violence as Thirthankar. Lived in Hell and life with one sense, but also attained Moksha. He himself taught false principles in previous births and taught the World the path to Moksha as Thirthankar.
The story tells how he elevates from the birth of Bhil and then falls to lower life including that of one sense. Further, he rises again, becomes King several times, adopts renunciated life, and becomes even Chakravarty King. He keeps shuttling between heaven and other worldly life until he gets self-realisation. Thus, no one can escape the vicious circle of births without self-realisation. What a strange coincidence. While Adinath was the first Thirthankar of this era, Marichi, the likely 24" and the last Thirthankar of this era must have played in the lap of his grandfather and the latter must have taught him that soul is the Supreme God - 'Appa is Paramappa'. Mahavir's search for truth started in the birth of Bhil but did get through quickly and took a very long time as he diverted himself from true path. He had golden opportunity to attain Moksha in the period of first Thirthankar as his grandfather, father, uncles - such thousands of kith and kin - achieved Moksha but Marichi faltered. We must not divert our attention from true path in this life. Marichi was the son of Bharat, Chakravarty King, and he had thousands of sons. All attained Moksha except Marichi. When Adinath attained 'kewalagyan', all the 4000 monks, who earlier took to renunciation along with him and did not follow the path of the Moksha, again turned to the true path after listening to Adinath but only Marichi did not change. He wanted to become like Adinath and hence started other belief - Sankhyamata Hinduism.
