Mahavira His Life And Teachings

Author(s): Saraswati Raghavachari
Publisher: Jain Sastu Sahitya

Page 45

At last we have reached the end of our story and the golden key is about to turn opening the palace of Eternity to admit the greatest moral and spiritual teacher of all time.
Mahavira preached the word of God for thirty years along the length and breadth of India. He had eleven disciples who were the . most enthusiastic missionaries of his doctrines.
They were like the twelve apostles of Christ; and each of them was the leader of a school with numerous Munis as members. They were, all the eleven, converts to Jainism; and they had a total following of about fourteen thousand eight hundred munis. There were also thirtysix thousand nuns who had entered the order or Mahavira led by CHANDANA, a relative of the teacher, who was among the first to receive the teachings of Mahavira. Lastly there were about one hundred and fifty nine thousand lay followers of the male sex and three hundred thousand of the female sex. Thus the teachings of the Lord spread far and wide.
Pavapuri is a lovely place about seven miles from Behar. 'The ruler of the place was Hastipal, a patron of Mahavira; and Lord Mahavira arrived there in the month of KARTIKA. He preached there for seven days in the presence of almost