Universal Message of Lord Mahavira

Author(s): Dulichand Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 66

56 Universal Message of Lord Mahāvīra Campā, Pāñcāla, Magadha, Rajagsha, Anga, Banga, Kalinga and many others. The Jaina canonical literature has detailed descriptions of the wanderings of Mahāvīra and the transformation of the people based on his noble teachings. Thousands of people from various cities and villages and from different walks of life joined the religious order of Mahāvīra.
Bimbisāra, the king of Magadha was a Buddhist but his Queen was a great devotee of Mahāvīra. We find a vivid description of the dialogue between Bimbisāra and Anathimuni in the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra, which inspired the king to become a disciple of Mahāvīra as well. His son and minister, Abhayakumāra, was also an ardent disciple of Mahāvīra. Cetaka, the head of Vaiśālī republic and maternal uncle of Mahāvīra, greatly contributed in propagating the Jaina religion far and wide. Many kings such as Virangada, Virayasa, Sanjaya, Seya, Siva, Udrayana and Sankha Kasivardhana joined the religious order of Mahāvīra.
The last lap of the great wanderings of Mahāvīra was Pāvā. He came here at the age of seventy-two and stayed in the garden of Rājā Hastipāla. His discourses at Pāvā are recorded in the Uttarādhyayana-sútra. Here he sat for his last meditation on a slab of stone. It was in the early hours of the fifteenth day of the dark fortnight of Kārtika month in 527 B.C. that transcending the wandering cycle of birth and death this hero of the spirit attained the state of Nirvāṇa and became a Siddha.
"And on that night during which the venerable ascetic Mahāvīra attained Nirvāņa, the eighteen confederate Kings of Kāśī and Kośala, the Mallas and the Lichhavis instituted an illumination with lighted lamps for they said, “Since the internal