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He therefore threw his Tejoleshya at Mahavira with a view to kill him. But the fire power released by him could not kill Mahavira and returned back to him, penetrated in his own body which made him delirious and eventually he died.
The question which arises form this incident is why the master did not release bis cooling power this time as he did previously when Goshalaka himself was the victim of a Rishi wrath? The explanation is that by this time Mahavira had attained "Kaivalya' (perfect and pure knowledge). According to Jain doctrine, a Kevali is a soul who, having attained steadfastness of an objective seer and knower (Drasta and Jnata) is never overtaken by emotions like ordinary mortals having limited knowledge, and hence does not interfere in the course of events by using his personal powers.
(Ref: pg 36-40 and 207-211) 8. An incident worthy of note occurred in the master's life in the twelfth year of his penances a short while before he attained Kaivalya.
Jainism does not believe that the Soul's journey to reach the spiritual heights begins and ends on one life. In fact, it is a journey form life to life during which the soul is educated by experiences gained form different types of life's struggle. Mahavira's ascendancy was no exception to this rule. In one of his past birth as a king he had committed a very cruel act of pouring boiling lead in the ears of a servant who failed to carry out his order of stopping music after he went to sleep. Mahavira had to pay for this cruelty and torture when that servant, now a coward, pricked nails in Mahavira's ears as he did not attend to his cattle while he was in meditation. Pain caused to Mahavira was unbearable but he suffered the same in silence. When, with this pain, he visited a town named Apapa, one doctor noticed from his face that he was suffering form some physical trouble. When the doctor knew the real cause of the pain, he took out the nails form his ears. As the story goes, when this operation was made by the doctor. The pain was so unbearable that even the iron willed person like him gave a shriek of pain.
This story is illustrative of the Jain doctrine of Karma. It says that certain Karmas (actions) are such that they cannot be wiped out even by the process of Sakama Nirjar (austerities undertaken with a view to shed the accumulated Karmas). Action of pouring boiling lead in the ears of hapless attendant for a minor lapse was a very cruel act which could not be mitigated by austerities and so the fruits of it had got to be suffered. The story also conveys the massage that the law of Karma rules evenly and equitably over all.
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