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
Tripristha Narayan what an enormons suffering did you undergo, and what an assortment of sins did you commit! But the desires for pleasure are insatiable and are never satisfied. In consequence, you were directed to the seventh hell, and there you suffered terrible pains Then you became a lion and underwent the same predicament. Just try to think and review your previous births"
On hearing the pacifying words of the monks, the lion became some what calm and looked inside when his memory of the previous births revived, and he could see the events of his past lives as if on a canvass This rent his heart and he was shivering with tears in his eyes.
When the monks notice a pure devotion and simple query in his eyes, they gave him a connected account of his life as the Bhila king Pururava till his present birth adding, “Although as Marici you got a chance of being associated with Risabhadeva, you, entertained falsehood, did not understand the true nature of the soul and that was the reason why you had to pass through so many lives. Now there is no cause of anxiety, since your worldly career is soon drawing to its close, and in your tenth life from now, you are going to be the last Tirthankara Mahavira in the land of Bharata We have known all these from the divine words of Tirthankara Sridhara who is an omniscient personality"
When he heard all these, within a short while, his violence and restlessness cooled down He had the potentiality f his own self, and now his passions were tranquil When the monks saw that the lion would be a good recipient of their advice, the following words came out of their mouth:
"There is a conscious object who lives inside the body but who is apart from the body Although that conscious object experiences the perverted currents of delusion, attachment, greed, etc, yet that object which by nature enjoys the joy of knowledge and is an eternal reality is quite distinct from them, with whose support religion emerges This emergent religion consists of right knowledge, faith and conduct. Since right knowledge, faith and conduct may take time to take full shape, it is very