Tirthankar Mahavir and His Sarvodaya Tirth

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

Page 19

TRADITION AND BACKGROUND
of their emotional attachment for him rather than their faith When monk Risabha steeped in meditation, he remained meditating for six months continuously Likewise fortitude and heroism was absent in these kings who had in a moment of enthusiasm assumed the role of a monk They were very much disturbed by hunger and thirst Risabhadeva was mute all the time and other monks did not have anyone to guide them In fact, before initiation, they had not taken the permission of Risabhadeva Being deeply immersed in meditation, Risabhadeva had no idea about the predicament of these monks. In the end, these monks had to satisfy their hunger by taking wild vegetation and they began to dress according to their own imagination,
In this manner, bad saintliness and bad religion got started with good saintliness and good religion in the land of enjoyment all living beings attain heaven as devas after death, but with the emergence of the land of spiritual activity, wherefrom started the road to liberation, as also opened the road to four-fold existence. Among those four thousand who had deviated from the right path, there was one Marici who, having passed through many good and bad lives ultimately ended as the final Tirthankara Mahavira.
When after six months, the meditation of monk Risabhadeva ended, he went out to collect food, but because of the emergence
the land of spiritual activity, none knew how to make an offer to the monk He could not get food for seven months and nine days Thus on the expiry of a total period of one year one month and nine days, he obtained food for the first time in the city of Hastinapura from the hands of Sreyansa, the brother of king Somaprabha. Sreyansa had recollected by dint of his memory of the previous births the manner of offering food to a monk, and thus he was able to make the offer The gieat monk took his meal on the third day of the second half of Vaisakha and since then that day has been called Aksaya Tritiya which is an occasion for countrywide festivity. In this manner, the founder of the religious order (dharma-tirtha) is Tirthankara Risabhadeva and of charity (dānatīrtha) is Sreyansa.