________________
A PRAVACHAN (DISCOURSE) GIVEN IN BAHRAIN
Mangalpath... Jai Gurudev. We were discussing Arhum and the Namokar Mantra.
We always chant Om and Arhum. Om is univeral sound. It contains Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, arihantas, siddhas, acharyas, uppadhyas and munis, along with gyan, appearance (darshan) and character (charitra). Gyan means right knowledge, Darshan means Right Faith and Charitra means Right Behaviour. There are lots of other interpretations, which I will not go into as I discussed them yesterday, I am mentioning this so that the meaning of the Namokar Mantra is clear, and so that you have this knowledge.
Lord Rishabdev's son Bahubali, lost interest in and became detached from the world. He remained standing for one whole year, during which birds built their nests on him, and termites and ants built anthills on his legs. He did not stir through all of this. However despite his steadfastness he did not achieve enlightenment. Why didn't he achieve enlightenment? This is because he had a big ego.
He thought "my brother who is younger than me has become enlightened. If I go to Lord Rishabdev then I will have to bow down in respect before Lord Rishabhdev and the entire assembly including my younger brother who will be there." He felt that it was not right to bend in front of a brother who was younger than him. When Lord Rishabdev saw this in his meditation, he sent his two daughters Brahmi and Sundari to tell Bahubali to get down from his elephant. They went to Bahubali and told him "Vira, you will not achieve enlightenment (Keval gyan/ Brahm gyan) by sitting on your elephant."
Bahubali was confused and thought "Why did they say that?", As far as he knew, he wasn't sitting on an elephant. He then went deep into himself and kept going deeper and deeper, and the thought came to him that the elephant he was sitting on was his ego, and that he had to
157
amrender muni ji maharaj
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
