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SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
pered aspirants led their own individual life. The order awards the life its peculiar tenor of discipline and uniformity
Lord Mahavira moved towards Sindhu-Sauvira 1 It was summer The villages in the way were few and far between. Scarcity of water and fellow-travellers was another cause of hardship It was sand dunes all around Thirst-starvationracked sadhus escorted the Lord They came across a caravan of sesamum-laden bullock-carts The cart-men saw the group of sadhus suffering pangs of lunger They offered to sadhus the sesamum seeds Now sesamum seeds are not supposed to bear life And still the Lord disallowed this food to them if sesamum were allowed once as food, it would have become a precedent Then it would become a second nature with the sadhus, the fact of the seeds being living or otherwise being thrown into oblivion How would each of the sadhus learn about the sesamum being living or non-living?
The Lord's caravan went a little ahead off the route a tank was visible The thirsty sadhus exclaimed that at last water was available The Lord could judge by the dint of his omniscience that the water bore no life No violence would occur in taking such a water And still he did not allow its use If allowed once how shall tank-water be prescribed in future? How shall a common sadhu know which water is life-bearing and which not?
Thej journey saw the expiry of many sadhus but the orderly norms were not transgressed ?
In an orderly life the norms have to be respected In solitary existence a concern for religion does exist but there is hardly any concern for norms
There were thousands of monks who pursued their spiritual path after abandoning the order
The Lord embellished the order and hence most of the
1 2
Fifth year of Tirthankarhood Brihatkalpa Chesya Gatha 997-999 pt 2 pp 314, 315
