Tirthankar Mahavir and His Sarvodaya Tirth

Author(s): Hukamchand Bharilla, K C Lalwani
Publisher: Kundkund Kahan Digambar Jain Trust

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TIRTHANKARA MAHAVIRA AND HIS SARVODAYA TIRTHA
of Jainism This is factually wrong. Jainism had originated earlier and was fairly widespread, and Mahavira helped it to spread further, and this is the reason why such a wrong notion was entertained by some reputed scholars "8
Not only Mahavira, not even the first Tirthankara Risabhadeva, was the founder of Jainism It is not the function of a Bhagavan to propound a religion, rather, sheltered in religion, the Soul is elevated to the status of Paramatman (Bhagavan). According to the Jaina belief, Bhagavans may be infinite in number, but in a single age, in the land of Bharata, the number of Tirthankaras is 24 only. Every Tirthankara is of necessity a Bhagavan, but not vice versa. One may become a Bhagavan without becoming a Tirthankara
Taking into consideration all times and all regions, even the Tirthankaras are infinite in number. Innumerable Tirthankaras have appeared before Risabha, and in Videha and other regions, they continue to appear. To understand this phenomenon, we must turn to the time-cycle as propounded by Mahavira.
Time Cycle
Though as an object, the universe is eternal, yet as a category, it is ever changing There is no hidden divine power in or beyond the universe which can regulate the change, and yet the change is not disorderly It is an order without a regulator; it is a law without a lawmaker. Each object is itself the regulator of its own change Time is only a tool in the change.
Time repeats, and this is a natural law as well as a scientific arangement. As day and night, fortnight and month, season and year change, so do centuries, millennia, even an immensely large time, because of some natural laws In this eternal flow of time, there are up-phases and down-phases called Utsarpini and Avasarpini in the Jaina terminology. As the Utsarpini phase waxes and expands, so the Avasarpini wanes and gradually recedes. In the Utsarpinī phase, the strength, longivity and body size gradually increase, as they gradually diminish in the Avasarpiņi phase Thus if Utsarpini
8 Mahavira Jayanti Smarikā (Souvenir) 1968, p 128.