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him the most cordial welcome; how Shatānika, king cKausāmbi, listened with deep interost to his discourses; how Shrenika, king of Magadba, asked him thousands of questions concerning the faith, and, all of them being sa tisfactorily apowered, became one of the strongest champions of the religion of the Jina.
We now come to the closing scene of Mabāvira's life. His last rainy season was spent in Pāpā-the modern Pāvāpuri-a small town in the Patna district, still held sacred by the Jainas. Hastipāla, the ruler of the place, was a great patron of Mahāvira, and, according to the Kalpa-Sutra, it was in the office of his scribthat the venerable ascetic died. He attained Nirvāpa, cut asander the ties of birth, old age and death, became a Siddha, a Mukta, freed from all misery, freed from all pains.
This is said to have occurred in 527 B. C., some 605 years before the commencement of the Shaka era, and 470 years before King Vikramāditya. Mabāvira's system of teaching, as it has come down to us, is full of metaphysics and philosophy; but apart from these, its main purpose, summed up in a few words, is to free the soul from its mundane fetters by means of the three jewels: Samyak Jnāna, Samyak Darshana, Samyak Chāritra-Right Knowledge, Right Faith, Right Conduct. His great message to mankind is that birth is nothing, caste is nothing, but Karma is overything, and on the destruction of this Karma de ponds final Emancipation.
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
