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He wandered from one place to another and once in a while came across small villages. Not so very often he would enter a village to beg food and mostly got dry and stale food. However, most of the time he went without any food. People would curiously stare at him and wild dogs would pounce on him and bite. For their crude entertainment, the aborigines would pick up Mahavir and throw him on the ground. Mahavir never uttered a word of protest. He did not even look at them. This silence also invited abuses from these primitives. Under such gravely adverse circumstances Mahavir spent almost five months in that area during his first visit. Once again, during the ninth year of his practices, Mahavir returned to this area for about six months. (M-19)
ध्वजा
कुम्भ
पद्म
सरोवर
समुद्र
Saving Gaushalak
Once, while moving from Siddharthpur to Kurmar village Mahavir was passing through a dense forest. All of a sudden Gaushalak saw a Tapas ascetic in an opening on one side of the trail. On closer observation he saw that the hermit was busy doing some strange penance. He was standing facing the sun with his head hanging down and arms straight up. Long strands of his hair were hanging on the ground like roots of some old banyan tree. Due to the heat of sun rays, small insects, falling from his unkempt hair were writhing, and out of compassion, he was picking them up and putting them back in his dense locks of hair.
Gaushalak could not control his laughter seeing this strange activity. Jokingly he said, "O abode of insects! What do you think you are doing? You are gathering insects and considering this act to be a penance." The hermit remained calm the first time. But when Gaushalak did not refrain from making biting remarks, the hermit looked at him with his burning eyes and said, "O vicious person ! My name is Vaisyayan Tapas and I am the doom of ignorant fools like you.” Instead of jolting him to sanity this scornful comment drew an insulting laughter from Gaushalak. The hermit now took a few steps back and angrily started emitting fire from his mouth (this is a miraculous power called Tejoleshya, acquired through long and harsh penance). Within no time a ball of fire rushed towards Gaushalak, who retreated with fear and ran to Mahavir shouting in panic, "Sire ! Save me. This Tapas will burn me." Reaching Mahavir, Gaushalak fell at his feet.
Hearing the pathetic call of Gaushalak, Mahavir was moved. Turning back he saw the approaching fire ball. From the compassionate heart of Shraman Mahavir flowed a spontaneous stream of cool pacifying energy. When the nectarglance of Mahavir fell on the fire-ball it subsided. The angry hermit was astonished to see his powerful fire-ball extinguished. He recognized Mahavir as a much greater and more benevolent power then he, and said, "Pardon me O
विमानभवन
रत्न राशि
निधूम
अग्नि
भगवान महावीर : श्रमण-जीवन
(889)
Bhagavan Mahavir : The Life as an Ascetic
LEAD
P 2small.se One
Aminelibandy
