Tirthankar Mahavir

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

Page 96

Acharya Shri Kailassagarsur Gyanmandir
Kataputana subjected Mahavira's body to severe tortures. But Mahavira had no attachment for his body. He had realised the separateness of the soul from the body. So how could bodily pains make his mind restless ? How could external calamity distress him?
However, Kataputana thought that Mahavira might endure tortures for sometime but he would not be able to endure them for long. She felt sure that the yogi would surely run away from the park. Thinking so, she continued her attacks with abundant ice-cold water and blasts of biting cold wind. She tried hard to agitate and disturb Mahavira, but the latter remained as firm as Mount Meru and endured the tortures calmly. He welcomed the shower of ice-cold water as he would welcome spiritual calmness arising from the soul itself. He turned the blasts of wind into ripples of bliss.
Bathing in cold showet
by Katputana
Finally, Kataputana was exhausted. She accepted defeat. Her hatred and anger subsided. Abandoning her past enmity and hatred for Mahavira, she thought, "How wonderful is Mahavira's power of endurance ! How endless and infinite is his equanimity !" She fell at his feet and sought his forgiveness for her great offence. The Ganges of universal love was constantly flowing from the heart of Tirthankara Mahavira who himself was an embodiment of love and an ocean of forbearance.
At this moment, Mahavira's spiritual purity increased to a great extent. He attained a higher stage of spiritual evolution and gained a special type of supernatural knowledge with which he was able to know any material thing lying anywhere in the universe.