According to the Jain philosophy, Lord Mahavira was the 24th and final Jain Tirthankara. An enlightened soul who is born as a human and achieves perfection through prolonged meditation is known as a Tirthankara. For a Jain, Lord Mahavira is equal to God, and the Bible is comparable to his philosophy. He was initially known as Vardhamana Mahavir but later adopted the name, Bhagwan Mahaveer. Vardhamana, who left his home at the age of 30 in search of spiritual enlightenment, engaged in rigorous meditation and penance for the following twelve and a half years, during which time he attained omniscience. He spent the next 30 years travelling the Indian subcontinent to teach Jain philosophy after achieving Kevala Jnana.
Prince Vardhamana, the son of King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala of the Ikshvaku Dynasty, became Lord Mahaveera. According to the Vira Nirvana Samvat calendar, he was born in 599 B.C. on the thirteenth day of the rising moon in the month of Chaitra. Vardhamana was born in the Gregorian calendar month of March or April, which corresponds to the current Mahaveer Jayanti holiday. The majority of historians concur that he was born in Kshatriyakund, in the Vaishali Kingdom, which is located in present-day Bihar.
Queen Trishala experienced the 14 dreams described in Jain scriptures while she was carrying Vardhamana, which showed that her unborn child was destined for greatness. His parents were Parashwanatha’s (a Jain ascetic) disciples. Vardhamana was a shy but courageous child. Throughout challenging circumstances, he repeatedly showed exceptional bravery. Being a prince, he was raised in lavish surroundings, but nothing seemed to bother him. He had a very basic lifestyle. He married Princess Yashoda at a very young age on the advice of his parents, and the couple had a daughter named Priyadarshana. Vardhamana allegedly turned down his parents’ requests to get married, according to the Digambara sect of Jainism.
Renunciation
When Vardhamana was 28 years old, his parents died, and their older brother Nandivardhana became their father’s new employer. Vardhamana yearned for freedom from his ties to the outside world and asked his brother for permission to give up his life as a king. Vardhamana practised fasting and meditation at home despite his brother’s attempts to talk him out of it. On the tenth day of Margsirsa, at the age of 30, he finally left his house and began living the ascetic life of a monk. He gave away all of his belongings, put on just a piece of clothing, said, “Namo Siddhanam,” or “I bow down to the liberated souls,” and then he left all of his material possessions behind.
Omniscience and Penalty
Mahavira pursued a life of strict penance for the following twelve and a half years to rid himself of his fundamental attachments. To overcome his primal desires, he engaged in strict meditation and total silence. He tried to get rid of negative emotions like anger by adopting a calm and peaceful demeanour. He stripped off his clothes and subjected himself to extreme hardship. He adopted a nonviolent stance towards all other living things. He frequently observed fasts while travelling, sleeping for only three hours every day. He travelled through Bihar, parts of Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, western and north Bengal, and western Bengal during his twelve years of penance.
A worn-out Mahaveera is said to have dozed off briefly after 12 years of difficult penance when he had a string of 10 odd dreams. According to Jain Scriptures, these dreams and their significance are as follows:
1. Beating a lion represents the destruction of “moha,” or attachment to the world.
2. A bird with white feathers flying after him denotes mental purity.
3. A bird with multiple colours on its feathers represents the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge with many facets.
4. The presence of two gem strings in the front represents the proclamation of a dual religion, which combines the obligations of a common man with those of a monk.
5. White cows in a herd represent a group of devoted people who will serve.
6. An open lotus pond represents the presence of celestial spirits that will advance the cause.
7. Swimming across a waxy ocean represents freedom from the cycles of death and rebirth.
8. The spread of the sun’s rays in all directions represents the achievement of Kevala Jnana (Omniscience)
9. Circumscribing the mountain with your bluish intestines denotes that the universe will know what you know.
10. Having Mahaveer seated on a throne at the summit of Mount Meru represents people honouring the knowledge he is imparting and giving him due respect.
Mahavira attained Kevala Jnana, or omniscience, on the tenth day of the rising moon in the month of Vaisakh, 557 B.C., while sitting beneath a Sal tree on the banks of the river Rijuvaluka (today’s river Barakar). Finally, he had unlimited energy, unrestricted bliss, perfect perception, knowledge, and conduct. He changed into a Jina, a person who triumphs over attachment.
Spiritual Path
Jain scriptures claim that Mahavira held Samavasarana, a preaching pavilion, to share his wisdom with the general populace. After his first Samavasarana failed, he held a second one in the Mahasena garden in the city of Pava. Eleven Brahmins decided to embrace his preaching and convert to Jainism in this place where his words of wisdom found favour with the populace. Achalbhadra, Agnibhuti, Akampita, Indrabhuti, Mandikata, Mauryaputra, Metarya, Prabhasa, Sudharma, Vayubhuti, and Vyakta were the eleven Brahmins who became his main followers or Gandhars. Lord Mahavira taught his three main disciples, Upaneiva (Emergence), Vigameiva (Disaster), and Dhuveiva, the Tripadi Knowledge (Three Pronunciations) (Permanence).
Organization
The eleven leading adherents of Mahavira’s teachings were those who brought their own disciples under his wing. Among the Jain Shramanas, these 4400 followers were the first. Later, common people joined his order, and Mahaveer eventually oversaw a community of 14 000 monks (muni), 36 000 nuns (Aryika), 159,000 laypeople (Shravakas), and 318,000 laywomen (Shravika). The Jain fourfold order, or four tirthas, is made up of these four groups. King Chandrapadyot, King Udayana, King Shrenik Bimbisar, King Ajatshatru, Nine Licchavis Kings of Koshal, and King Chetaka of Vaishali were a few of his royal adherents.
Nirvana
Mahavir dedicated his life to teaching others about his Keval Jnana, and he spoke to audiences in their languages rather than using more formal Sanskrit. At Pavapuri, he gave a 48-hour-long final discourse. At the age of 72, shortly after delivering his final discourse, he attained moksha and was finally freed from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
Teachings
The last and 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, Lord Mahavira is credited with organising the faith and founding the Jain Sangha. Men and women, according to Lord Mahavira, are spiritual equals and are both capable of renunciation the world to pursue Moksha. Rich and poor, men and women, touchable and untouchable, all social classes, and all genders were encouraged to participate, according to Lord Mahavira.
The ultimate goal of following Lord Mahavira’s teachings is to break free from the cycle of rebirth because human life is a metaphor for suffering, misery, and vices. He asserts that every living thing is enslaved by Karma, which is the result of all of that being’s past deeds. Souls seek pleasure in worldly things, which leads to the introduction of vices like violence, self-centeredness, anger and greed.
These lead to the accumulation of negative karma, which prevents souls from being freed from the cycle. He preached that Samyak Darshana (right faith), Samyak Jnana (right knowledge), and Samyak Charitra (right conduct) are the true paths leading to liberation from the cycle of karma (right character). The Gandhar Gautama Swami further developed these three fundamental ideas into the twelve-part holy texts known as the 12 Agamas. By way of oral transmission to the populace, the sermons of Lord Mahaveera were collected by his disciples in the Agam Sutras.
These scriptures outline five fundamental vows that monks and lay followers should uphold. These initial five vows are
1. Ahimsa, or nonviolence, is the principle of not harming living things.
2. Honesty (Satya) – to speak only the pure truth
3. To not take anything that has not been properly given (Asteya).
4. Chastity (Brahmacharya) – abstaining from sensual enjoyment
5. Non-possession/Non-Attachment (Aparigraha) – total disassociation from people, places, and material possessions.
In addition to the pre-existing Shwetambaras, a new Jain sect known as the Digambaras was founded on the teachings and philosophy of Lord Mahavira. The Digambaras consider moksha—the state of liberation from material attachments—to be attained through a life of rigorous penance and engaging in nudity. Jains hold that the universe is eternal and neither it nor anything in it can be created or destroyed. According to Mahavira, six eternal substances comprise the universe: souls, space, time, material atoms, medium of motion, and medium of rest.
To create the complex reality that mortals live in, these separate elements go through changes. The Anekantvada (principle of non-absolutism) school of thought, which emphasises the plurality of existence, was developed by Lord Mahavira. It teaches that there are many different perspectives on reality and that no one perspective can be the only true one. The Syadvada or the Principle of Seven Fold Predictions offers a more comprehensive explanation of this complex reality. The Jain belief in the existence of an infinite number of points of view, each expressing a partial truth, is reinforced by the principle of Partial Stand Points, or Nayvada, which is another offshoot of Anekantvada.
