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Study of Jainism
become a sramaņa. He left Ayodhya and in the out-skirts of the city in the garden called Siddhartha-Udyana he sat under the Asoka tree; removed all his ornaments and the clothes and became a parivraja. Along with him other princes and followers numbering 4000 took the vow of renunciation.
The incident of Nilanjana may have a mythological content, but it has a great psychological significance. Such incidents are occasions to express the inner yearning for renunciation. These incidents provoke the non-attached to act. There is the mental set and sufficient intuitive insight, to distinguish the real from appearance. For thousands of years men have seen apples falling from the trees, but it was Newton who discovered the law of gravitation in the fall of the fruits. And likewise, Rşabha was "Svayam sambuddha" (self-enlightened). The Buddha saw the old man, the deceased man and the dead body and he took to renunciation. It was a caitra Krişņa Aştami (8th day of the dark fortnight of Caitra) he was first to take śramaņa Dikşa (renunciation). 48 He was filled with compassion for mankind. Inspired by his action, 4000 princes followed his example and took to renunciation. 49 Srimad Bhagavata gives the description of the hardships that he suffered during his ascetic life. 50 But the Jaina canonical literature does not mention the hardships of his ascetic life, because basically the Jainas believed that the age in which he lived was an age of faith and respect for the tirthankara. It was only later at the time of the twenty fourth tirthankara there was prevalence of evil in the minds, of the people and resistance to ascetic life.
One year passed in the practice of asceticism and meditation. By this time many of his 400 disciples could not stand the severe strain of penance and ascetic practices. They gave up his way of life and started their own schools of thought emphasising the middle path and rather than suffer ascetic practices. 51
It was an auspicious morning of the 3rd day of the lunar half of the month of Vaisakha, Bhagawan Rşabha entered the city of Gajapura, (Hastinapura). The Prince Sreydísa approached him with great respect and offered him the sugarcane juice. Rşabhadeva accepted the food offered for the first time during his wanderings.
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