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entertain any sex appetite, even in mind, and not to have any possession of worldly goods. These were his five Great Vows. Along with the practice of these negative vows or restraints, he got himself habituated to endure with peace and patience all such physical and mental tortures, known as parişaha, like hunger, thirst, cold, heat, mosquito-fly bites etc. which naturally a monk, who has no home, no shelter, no clothes on body and no worldly provisions, has to face.
4. Mahāvīra's Omniscience Mahāvīra spent twelve years as an ascetic, practising these various austerities. One day, while he was seated, plunged in meditation, close to the village, Jsmbhaka by name, on the bank of the river Rju-kūlā, omniscience or all-knowledge (which has no limitations of time and space) dawned on him. In simple terms it means that he got satisfactory solutions for all those problems and questions, connected with the life and the universe, which occur to any inquisitive soul. He fully comprehended the six substances (dravya) and seven principles (tattva) whereby gets explained the nature of all the objects and their activities. The six dravyas are: jīva, pudgala, dharma, adharma, ākāśa and kāla; and the seven tattvas are: jīva, ajīva, āsrava, bandha, samvara, nirjarā and mokşa. The very basic principle of life is jīva or the ātma-tattva which is different from matter; it is characterised by consciousness and is capable of cognising itself and others; and it is immaterial and eternal. But it is found conjoined with matter, accommodated in the body, assuming various forms of life and wandering through different lives (in the transmigratory career). All the concrete objects, perceptible by sense-organs, from the primary atom to the mahā-skandha, are different forms of pudgala. Dharma and adharma (principles of motion and rest) are such subtle, unseen and immaterial principles as serve the mediums of motion and rest for the jīvas and pudgalas.
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