Tirthankar Mahavir and His Sarvodaya Tirth

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

Page 28

18
TIRTHANKARA MAHAVIRA AND HIS SARVODAYA TIRTHA
of liberation for Neminatha, this was also a land where he practised penance Rajul too practised her penance here Two sons of Krisna, Pradyumna Kumara and Sambhu Kumara, too were liberated from their seat on this mountain. Pradyumna Kumara was a Kamadeva.
Parsvanatha
The 23rd Tirthankara Parsvanatha is the very embodiment of the spirit of non-malice In one of his previous lives, the one-sided malice entertained by one Kamatha towards him on the one hand, and Parsva's feeling of amity towards him on the other are a proof of his highest attainment in non-violence.
About 3000 years ago, an exceedingly illustrious child was born in the race of Iksvaku in the line of Kasyapa to king Asvasena of Varanasi from his enlightened consort Vamadevi on the eleventh day of the dark half of Pausa. He was named Parsva Kumara Parsva Kumara was brilliant, rich in intellect, endowed with many auspicious marks and detached to worldly life hy birth. Although there was no dearth of luxury goods in his home, he had no attraction for them. Though reared under the shadow of affluence, he remained non-involved like a lotus though in water. In his youth, his parents tried to settle him in marriage but they could not succeed 10 make him agree.
He was self enlightened by birth and so he was always indifferent to the worldly life. One day in the morning, he was going out for a walk in the company of his friends when in the way he saw his maternal grandfather garbed as a monk performing the pancāgni penance on the way side. In the midst of the blazing flame, there was a pair of he and she snakes who were also getting burnt. Parsva Kumara knew all this by dint of his extra sensory knowledge and he asked his grandfather to desist from this type of penance, but the latter was not convinced till the log was pierced and the pair came out half burnt. Parsva Kumara consoled the snakes with sweet words. As their sin had reached a low point, after death they were born as Dharanendra and his consort Padmavati.