Mahavira his Times and his Philosophy of Life

Author(s): Harilal Jain, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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This is unanimously accepted in all the Vedic purānas.3 This very Bharata had a son, Marici by name. Even this prince Marici represented the soul of a hunter, who, giving up his usual profession of killing animals, had accepted the vow of ahimsā, i.e., abstention from harm unto living beings. He had taken dikşā, i.e., renunciation, from Rşabha-deva; but he could not carry out the severe practices of a monk prescribed to him by the first Tīrthakara, so he ceased to maintain the status of a monk. He possessed, however, the potential seed of religion and consequent incentive for its pursuit. He passed, therefore, through various births of gods and men; and he was born, at last, as the Tirthakara Mahāvīra. Thus it will be easily seen that the spiritual heritage of Mahāvīra, the last Tirthakara, stands firmly linked with Rşabha-deva, the first Tirthakara.4 The succession of Tirthakaras does not come to an end with Mahāvīra. Mahāvīra had a disciple in one of the then kings of India, Sreņika Bimbasāra, in whom he invested the seed of religion. Though Sreņika was destined to go to hell on account of his past sins, still, like Marici, he would, in his next birth, head a new series of Tirthakaras of the future; in fine, he would be born as Mahāpadma, the first of the twentyfour Tirthakaras of the future. Thus, taking an overall view, the fact stands firmly founded in the Jaina tradition that just as Mahāvira, as a historical person, is the last Tirthakara of the pre-purāņic tradition, he is, as well, the first to inaugurate a new succession of Tirthakaras,
3 Bhāgavata-purāna 5, 4, 9; 11, 2. Visnu-purāna 2, 1, 31. Vāyu-purāna 33, 52. Agni-purāna 107, 11-12. Brahmānda-purāna 14, 5, 62. Liriga-puräna 1, 47, 23. Skanda-purāna, Kaumāra-khanda' 37,57. Mārkandeya-purāna 50, 41. In these sources it is clearly mentioned that it is from Bharata, the son of Rsabha, that this country got the name Bhārata-varsa. 4 Mahāpurāņa (Skt.), parvan 74. Mahāpurānu (Apabhramsa); samdhi 95. 5 Mahāpurāna (Sanskrit) 76, 471-77.
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