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
tions, because their thoughts are turned inward. Even if such situations arise, they leave no mark on them beyond being recorded in their knowledge It happens like that because they live on by knowing and seeing the destiny of self and of others When Sthanurudra saw the severe penance of the monk, when he saw his unperturbed frame in the midst of severe disturbances and his posture of detachment, he felt himself to be small With fear and surprise, he expressed regret and started singing in praise of the monk.
Even this change in Sthanurudra made no impact on MahaVira He was absorbed within He was fully minding his own business, as Sthanurudra was busy with his own
In this manner, the monk was steadily progressing on the road to detachment In practising penances, both internal and external, he had spent twelve years. One day at the age of
42, he came to a forest named Manohara on the bank of the river Rujukula near the village Jrimbhika There beneath a Sala tree, on a shining slab of stone, he assumed pratima-yoga and sat down in a trance It was evening on the tenth day of the bright half of Vaisakha The moon shone between the two stars named Hasta and Uttara. With the help of his soul, he experienced the purest states. By dint of a great vigour he rose to apratipāti ksapakasreni and entered into pure meditation With the deepest of concentration on the self, he erased the remnants of his attachment and became fully detached. No sooner did he attain the stage of detachment than he had the realisation of the supreme knowledge, kevalajnāna
Now he became wholly detached, all-knowing, a Bhagavan. He became a great hero, Mahavira by dint of his victory over delusion, attachment and greed. Right then, a great virtue named Tirthankara came up and he became a Tirthankara
Saudharmendra saw at once that Tirthankara Mahavira had come to acquire the supreme knowledge At once he came down and performed the kalyaṇaka ceremony befitting the occasion. He ordered Kuvera to erect a congregation hall where the Tirthankara could deliver his first sermon The congregation hall of a Tirthankara is called samavasarana.