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Life of Lord Mahāvīra
35
Cetaka, the head of Vaiśālī republic and maternal grandfather of Mahāvīra also had great faith in his preachings. He took oath of the twelve vratas to be observed by a householder. He contributed greatly in spreading Jaina religion far and wide. Many kings such as Vīrāngada, Vīrayasa, Sañjaya, Eṇeyaka, Seya, Śiva, Udrāyaṇa and Śankha-Kaśīvardhana joined his order and became patrons of this religion.
The Sangha established by Mahāvīra was well organised and disciplined. Perhaps it is because of the severity of discipline and clinging to the original tradition that the Jaina order has not swelled in number but has remained steady in India.
Mahā-nirvāṇa
Mahāvīra was now seventy-two years old. At the last lap of his journey, he came to Pāvā and stayed in the garden of Rājā Hastipāla. He gave several discourses which were recorded in Uttaradhyayana Sūtra. He sat for his last meditation on a slab of stone. It was in the early hours of the fifteenth day of the dark fortnight of Kartika month when he attained the state of Nirvāṇa in 527 B.C. At that time, only two of the eleven Gaṇadharas Indrabhūti and Sudharmās vāmī were alive, the rest had attained Nirvāṇa earlier to him. It is believed that Indrabhuti Gautama attained omniscience in a matter of hours after his teacher had passed away. These two events are even now celebrated by the Jainas in their Dīpāvalī (festival of lights) following a tradition supposedly begun by the local kings on that very day. As the Kalpa-sūtra says:
"On that night when the venerable ascetic Mahāvīra attained Nirvāṇa cutting asunder the ties of birth, old age and death, became a Siddha, thus finally liberated......... his oldest disciple, the Monk Indrabhuti of the Gautama gotra, obtained the highest knowledge and intuition, called Kevala, which is infinite, supreme and full." (Kalpa-sūtra, 126 )
"And on that night during which the venerable Ascetic Mahāvīra obtained Nirvāṇa, the eighteen confederate Kings of Kāśī
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