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Svayambhūstotra
Lord Pārsvanātha
Saudharma Indra, the lord of the devas, came to know through the power of his clairvoyance that only six months of the 20 sāgaropama life of the deva in the Prāṇata heaven (kalpa) were remaining and his pious soul will descend on the earth to take birth as the twenty-third Tīrthankara, Lord Pārsvanātha. On his instruction, Kubera created a divine palace in the town of Vārāṇasī for the supremely blessed royal couple - Queen Vāmādevī (also called Queen Brahmādevī) and King Aśvasena - and rained down gems for 6 months to welcome the Lord of the Lords on the earth. Lord Pārsvanātha was born on the eleventh day of the dark half of the month of Pausa - pausa krşņa ekādaśī. Lord's birth had taken place as 84,650 years passed after the birth of the twenty-second Tīrthankara, Lord Aristanemi.
Lord Pārsvanātha attained the height of 9 hātha (4 hātha = 1 dhanuşa).
When Pārsvanātha was 16 years old, He had gone to a nearby forest, with young deva friends (devakumāras), for recreation. His staunch enemy from previous births and now His maternal grandfather, King Mahīpāla, was performing ill-conceived austerities and sacrificial rites in the forest. On seeing Pārsvanātha, Mahīpāla got angry as the child had not saluted and greeted him. Mahīpāla started to cut a tree for firewood. Pārsvanātha had clairvoyance from birth and told Mahīpāla not to cut the tree as there was a cobra couple in its hollow. Infuriated further with the unsolicited advice of the boy, Mahīpāla cut the tree with a strong blow of his axe. Sure enough, the cobra couple was there, cut into two, weltering for breath. The cobra couple, having had a pious death in the presence of the Tīrthankara Child, was born as Dharanendra deva and Padmāvati devī in the Residential (Bhavanavāsī) class of devas. Mahīpāla died after some time and became a Stellar (Jyotişka) deva called Samvara.
Lord Pārsvanātha spent 30 years as youth (kumārakāla). Once
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