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Appendix-2
Lord Naminātha
The twenty-first Tirthankara, Lord Naminātha, was born as 6 lakh plus 20,000 years passed after the birth of the twentieth Tīrthankara, Lord Munisuvratanātha. Lord Naminātha was born in the town of Mithilāpurī to Queen Vaprilā and King Vijaya on the tenth day of the bright half of the month of Așadha - āşadha śukla daśami. His pious soul had descended from Aparājita (anuttara) super-heaven which has the maximum life-span of 33 sāgaropama.
The Lord's height was 15 dhanușa.
After spending 2,500 years as youth (kumārakāla), Lord Naminātha ruled His kingdom for 5,000 years (rājyakāla). Reflecting on His past incarnations and on the beginningless cycle of worldly pleasures and sorrows that His soul had been subjected to He decided to tread the path that leads to the end of this inimical cycle of births, deaths, and rebirths. The Lord gave away His kingdom to son Suprabha and renounced all worldly pursuits to adopt the path to liberation. Laukāntika devas from Brahmaloka came down to endorse the Lord's decision and to worship Him. The Lord committed Himself to the observance of the five great vows (mahāvrata), three kinds of controls (gupti), and fivefold regulation of activities (samiti). He was devoid of the three stings (salya) of deceit (māyā), desire for enjoyment of pleasure and splendour (nidāna), and perverse faith (mithyātva). After 9 years of asceticism (chadmasthakāla) Lord Naminātha attained the all-embracing knowledge – Omniscience (kevalajñāna) making Him really qualified to preach the gospel to the world. He became a World Teacher! The devas erected a heavenly Pavilion (samavasaraņa) befitting Lord's glory and there He delivered Discourse Divine which acted like nectar-water to wash away the dirt of ignorance from all souls present in the congregation.
The time period of Lord's renunciation (samyamakāla) was 2,500 years out of which He spent 2,491 years as Omniscient.
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