Tirthankar Mahavir

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

Page 67

Acharya Shri Kailassagarsun Gyanmandir
On that day Mahavira took a vow to fast for two days. And of the four equal divisions of the day it was the fourth and last one - the auspicious moment called 'Vijaya' ('Victory). When the moon came in conjunction with Urtara Falguni constellation, Mahavira himself pulled out the hair from his beard, moustache and head in five fistfuls. The hair was collected in the best cloth and then respectfully and ceremoniously floated in waters of the milky ocean.
Having saluted the disembodied perfect souls (Siddhas) thrice, Mahavira assumed the life of an ascetic and the life of equanimity. He took the severest vow of his lifelong acceptance of the five great vows. He declared : "I embark upon the lifelong spiritual practice of equanimiry and I abandon all evil soul defiling activities."
Acceptance of initiation by taking the vows and
plucking of hair
When Mahavira made the declaration of his assumption of asceticism,
peace prevailed all round. Gods and humans became so still that they looked as if they were drawn in pictures. Indra, the Lord of the Gods, covered Mahavira with a magnificent piece of cloth called the 'Devadushya'. Mahavira, who was aware of the three types of knowledge since birth, now came to possess the fourth one which enabled him to read the minds of human beings. The gods and their lords saluted him and having performed the seven-day-long religious rites in Nandishvara continent, they returned to their heavenly abodes.
Vardhamana alone became an ascetic. Ir the case of previous twenty-three tirthankaras, when they became ascetics along with them so many others too became ascetics. When the first tirthankara, Rashabhadeva, accepted asceticism, four thousand men also accepted asceticism. Vasupu ya Swami accepted asceticism together with six hundred men, while Mallinatha and Parshvanatha accepted