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APRIL 2013
Prabuddha Jivan: Mahavir Stavan Special
PAGE No. 83
A beginner's guide to Lord Mahavir Bhagwan Mahavira
A contemporary of Gautam Buddha, Bhagwan Mahavira's teachings and life form the perfect and limitless source of inspiration for Jains. Indeed, he is the rejuvenator, propagator and teacher of Jainism.
Queen Trishala saw 14 auspicious dreams when she conceived him. Asked by King Siddartha to explain the meaning, the dream interpreters announced that the queen would give birth to a Tirthankara. Mahavira was born in 543 before the Vikram era (599 B.C) on the 13th day of the bright half of the Chaitra month at Kshatriya Kundh. This region is today part of the state of Bihar in India.
His parents named him 'Vardhamana', because from the time he was conceived, the power, wealth and glory of not only the royal family but also the people multiplied.
From early childhood, Vardhamana had great physical strength. His fearlessness soon earned him the title of 'Mahavira'. His parents found him a bride in princess Yashoda and they had a daughter, Priyadarshana. Though he spent the first 30 years of his life as a householder, living in the royal palace, his mind continued to dwell on renunciation and spiritual practice.
Finally, when he was 30 years old, he took the vow of asceticism, renouncing the world. The next twelve and half years were spent in deep silence and meditation and practice of severe austerities. With the greatest equanimity and serenity, he faced the insults and ill-treatment of the rude and ignorant. He bore ungrudgingly the attacks of beasts and insects and other calamities of nature.
Once, he went through a forest where a venomous cobra called Chandkaushik lived. When the enraged snake bit his toe, a substance that was as pure as milk flowed from the wound. In fact, Mahavira's gentle words calmed Chandkaushik who recalled its past births and that it had suffered immensely due to its angry nature. He paid reverence to the Lord, took the vow of fast-unto-death and later died while meditating.
At another time, a heavenly figure known as Sangamdev visited 20 different and dreadful calamities on Bhagwan Mahavir in just one night. This entity assumed the forms of mosquitoes, beasts, sandstorms, scorpions and other poisonous creatures at different times and hurled itself at him or bit him. Nothing succeeded in shaking Mahavira's composure. So Sangamdev went to the opposite extreme and
began sending charming 'Apsaras'( beautiful women) to seduce him. This did not succeed either. After six months of harassing the Lord in this manner, Sangamdev himself fell in exhaustion at Mahavira's feet.
Jainism believes that time is infinite and has neither beginning nor end. It is divided into infinite and equal time cycles with each cycle being further divided into two equal halves. These halves have a distinct and characteristic feature. One half is the progressive phase known as Utsarpini while the other, the regressive part is known asAvsarpini. Each of these are further divided into six unequal parts called Aras.
The present period is the fifth Ara of the Avsarpini part.
Jains hold that in the previous Ara (i.e the fourth one), 24 souls became Tirthankaras.
A Tirthankar is one who has conquered all the enemies within himself (like anger, desire, falsehood, pride) and has thus created a "ford" across the "river of human misery" that is life.
In the present Avsarpini, Bhagwan Rishabhadev was the first Tirthankara and Bhawan Mahavira, the last and twenty-fourth Tirthankara. Reshma Jain The Narrators Tel: 9820427444
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