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SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
people began to shout, 'Glory be to Gaushalak!' Later occurrence was conveyed to them that Gaushalak failed to burn Mahavira and that the flames created by his wizardry reentered him causing him ennul Now the same people shouted, 'Glory be to Mahavira'
The masses are swayed by miracles They can hardly appreciate dharma. Mahavira had a sense of attachment he would not have allowed his two disciples to be burnt alive When the sense of attachment rose in him, he saved Gaushalak from being burnt Vaishyayan, the austere had applied his fiery powers to Gaushalak which were quenched by Lord Mahavira by means of his mysterious cooling powers But now Mahavira had shaken off all sense of attachment He now lived on a spiritual plane where the differences of life and death, self and another being had little relevancy On these empyrean heights exercising occult powers was unthinkable His concern was with dharma and not with miracles
The news of two monks being reduced to ashes by a pyromaniac caused anguish to the intellectuals Dharma is after all a means to eradicate the evil of attachment Dharma is another name for universal love It breeds no enemies in its realm When baser traits like attachment infect it, dharma becomes a scapegoat for factionalism and strife - Lord Mahavira remedied the evil of strife by virtue of his nonattachment and stoc tolerance of Gaushalak's powers. Gaushalak was now quiet and thought it wise to retire The air was once more tranquillised as fast as it had been rent with discord
The Lord reached Maindhiya, a Bihar village, from Shravasti He stayed at Shankaushthak chaitya He suffered from bilious fever and acute burning sensation all over the body Blood-dysentary complicated the ailment Hearing of it, people of all communities began to comment that Gaushalak's austerities had set at naught all the virtues of
