Non Violence A Way Of Life

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Jaibhikkhu Sahitya Trust

Page 16

Everyone in the kingdom; the king, the minister, the merchant, the monk began to weigh his own Karma. Everyone began to think "What is an evil deed? What is a good deed? What is justice? What is injustice ?"
One day the news came that Bhagwan accepted boiled unsplit black beans from Chandanbala who was a slave in the household of the merchant Dhanavaha. On hearing this people started streaming to the place of the merchant Dhanavaha. But aster some time they were surprised to find that the woman whom they had mistaken for a slave woman was actually the daughter of the king of Champanagar. Her mother was the sister of the king of Kaushambi. She was now a prisoner taken in the war between Champa and Kaushambi. Seeing this, people exclaimed, "How terrible is war, in which man kills his own kinsfolk."
Mahavir showed to the world the strength of the soul and of the body. Out of his austerity period of twelve and a half years, for 349 days he took only one meal a day. On all the rest of the days, he fasted without taking even water. During this period of severe austerity he performed one penitential exercises of six months. One penitential exercise of six months less five days. Nine penitential exercises of four months. Two penitential exercises of three
months, two penitential exercises of two and a half months, six penitential exercises of two months, two penitential exercises of one and a half months, twelve penitential exercises of one month each and seventytwo penitential exercises of a fortnight. For 4166 days out of 4515 days of his life of austerity, he performed penitence even without water. He journeyed thousands of miles on foot without a garment on his body, or an umbrella over his head, or shoes on his feet. Thus he proved that man's soul has tremendous strength. If your are to weigh the strength-of the whole world on one side, and the soul's strength on the other, the soul's strength excels. If a man treads the path of ahimsa and truth, he becomes Paramatma. Paramatma is none other than the soul itself. It is the soul that becomes Paramatma.
After twelve and a half years of severs austerity and unprecedented penance, Mahavir sat in meditation in a ricefield on the bank of the river Rajuvalika. It was the tenth day of bright half of the month of Vaishakha. It was the fourth quarter (3 hours' period) of the day. He was performing a two-day fast And on this day, under a shala (teak) tree he was sitting in godohasana (cow-milking) posture (knees up and head lowered). At that time he attained Kevaljnana (omniscience). The lamp of infinite knowledge now shone bright. For a while the whole
230
di Novels