Tirthankar Mahavir

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Jaybhikkhu Sahitya Trust

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Acharya Shri Kailassagarsun Gyanmandir
- and who poured hot lead into the ears of the keeper of bed-room for his carelessness in the performance of duties. After completing the life as Triprushta Vasudeva, his soul was born as an infernal being. In the twentieth previous life his soul was born as a stately lion. On the death of the lion, the soul was born as an infernal being again. After that, the soul took many births in the form of animals and of humans. In his twenty-second previous life, his soul was born as the Prince Vimala. In the twenty-third previous life, in the incarnation of universal ruler Priyamitra there arose in his soul the strong feeling of non-attachment. He renounced the world, became a Jain monk and practised austere spiritual discipline. In the twenty-fourth previous life his soul was born as a god in the Sarvartha celestial aerial car in the Mahashukra heavenly world. In the twenty-fifth previous life his soul was born as a compassionate prince named Nandana who was initiated, by Acharya Portilla, into the order of Jain monks, and observed severe austerities. Along with the observance of these austerities he accomplished the three virtues of forbearance, service and auspicious meditation, thereby attaining spiritual purity.
In the twenty-third previous life as the universal ruler Priyamitra, Mahavira's soul adopted Jain asceticism through his initiation into the order of Jain monks and in all the following births, the soul undertook the same initiation and the continuous practice of Jain ascetic discipline. This initiation in to the seven lives, led to the attainment of a very high stage of spiritual development. In his life as Prince Nandana, his soul bound the special auspicious karma called tirthankara-nama-karma which in the future in the life of Tirthankara Mahavira would result in the attainment of tirthankarahood. In the twenty-sixth previous life, his soul was born as a god in the heavenly world of Pranata and, at last, in the twenty-seventh life, saw his soul descend into the womb of Devananda. When still in Devananda's womb, his soul possessed three types of knowledge, mati, shruta and avadhi. Mati is the sense perception, memory, recognition, cogitation and inference. Shruta means scriptural or verbal knowledge and Avadhi is the knowledge of hidden spatially distant material objects.
Thus the previous lives of Tirthankara Mahavira show that, having destroyed the defiling passions through practicing of self-control and austerities, his soul attained tirthankarahood. Mahavira's previous lives have the salutary message for man that spiritual vigilance and the realisation of the limitations of material prosperity are necessary prerequisites for the attainment of liberation; only through self-culture and self-discipline one can attain spiritual elevation.