MISS CONTEMPLATION CAN LEAD TO SPIRITUAL DEGENARATION

The most important thing is to control on thoughts. Our thoughts can lay the soul to the hell or to heaven or to animal incarnation. Here is the best example related with Lord Parshva. Lord Parshva was the 23rd Tirthankar and lived some 3000 years ago. Today he is worshipped as much as Lord Mahavir, the 24th Tirthankar.
The soul that was to be Lord Parshvanath was inspired to take the direction of purity in its birth as Marubhuti. He was born to the wife of Purohit Vishabhuti living in Potanpur city. His elder brother was Kamath. As Kamath was cruel, conceited, and a debauch, in spite of being the elder son it was Marubhuti who succeeded his father on the post of Rajpurohit (the director of ritual ceremonies of the king and state). Attracted toward the beautiful wife of Marubhuti, Vasundhara, Kamath seduced her. When Kamath’s wife came to know about the affair, she tried to dissuade him in vain and told Marubhuti about it. Marubhuti made a secret inquiry and conveyed everything in detail to the king. Kamath was exiled by the king. He became a mendicant and started doing rigorous penance.
After sometime Marubhuti felt that it was because of his report that Kamath was insulted and thrown out of the state; as such he should go and beg forgiveness from his elder brother. Marubhuti went into the jungle near Kamath and bowed before him seeking his pardon. Instead of getting pacified, Kamath was over powered by the desire of vengeance. He picked up a large stone and hit Marubhuti on the head. Marubhuti died on the spot but at the time when he died he fell on miss contemplation as his head was bleeding by the heavy stone. He mentally said, “Oh! What a strong pain? How can I tolerate this pain?” Because of this miss contemplation when he died, his soul reincarnated as an elephant in the Vindhyachal forest!
This small story states that due to miss contemplation even the pious soul of Marubhuti reincarnated as an animal (however in his later life he purified his soul to a great extent and became a Tirthankar). Now think what would happen to a person who always remains absorbed in miss contemplation and involves in sinful activities? The Jain Tirthankars as well as Lord Buddha have used meditation to control their senses because control of mind and senses is the most important part in spiritual progress.

Now here is mentioned another example of Monk Prasanna Chandra who became a monk from The King during Lord Mahavir’s time.
One day King Prasanna was observing clouds and soon all the clouds vanished from the sky. Thus the King realized the nature of life and thought that the life is like clouds that can end anytime. The cycle of birth and death never ends. Thus he decided to renounce the worldly pleasures and decided to become a monk. He transferred his Royal Authority to his son who was still a teenager.
Once, Prasannachandra, now a monk, came to Rajgriha with Lord Mahavir. Standing on one leg, with arms raised, he was engrossed in meditation outside the Samavasaran. A large number of people, including King Shrenik, passed by without disturbing the deep meditation of the monk to see Mahavir.
Seeing the calm, quiet face of Prasannachandra, resplendent in meditational pose, Durmukh, a minister of King Shrenik, was possessed by a fit of mad jealousy and malicious intent to disturb the monk's tranquility. He taunted, "Having left your son, a minor, at the helm of affairs of your kingdom, you have become a carefree monk. Do you know how fearful your young son is in such a situation? Enemies have surrounded him on all sides! The kingdom and his life both are at stake! If you have any worth, show it. It is your duty to save your child from these perils, after which you should think of spiritual attainments."
Outwardly, Prasannachandra was unperturbed, but inwardly, his mind was growing restless. He visualized the frightened face of his young, helpless child and he was mentally there at Pottanpur to protect his son. Mentally, he ordered the army to be prepared for battle, saw his army carry out the order, and even come with arms onto the battlefield, wounded or imprisoned all who threatened to harm the well-being of his son.
This agonizing state of mind full of violence and fear were contradictory to the peaceful outward nature that he was manifesting. New thoughts were perpetually fueling the fire of wrath and vengeance burning within his mind. Upon hearing the appreciative words of a humble layman thanking him for his exemplary lifestyle-- "Leaving all worldly luxuries and practising Sadhana is noble indeed".
The monk began to really think: --Whose son? Whose empire? Of what am I thinking? Why do these earthly cares plague me so? What good can come of wishing harm for others? Such attachment is not wise. I must repudiate such inane feelings as victory and defeat. Such are the thoughts of irrational men. I wish to be beyond such trifles.
His thoughts now directed to their proper sphere, Prasannachandra had pure thoughts and new vision. The mental enemies disappeared; the delusion was over. The veils so long obscuring knowledge and perception were flung aside, thus clearing his path of all obstructions. Prasannachandra had attained omniscience.
When Prasannachandra was doing battle mentally before attaining omniscience, King Shrenik asked Lord Mahavir that if the monk Prasannachandra dies right now then when would his soul go? Mahavir replied,” Oh King! If Prasannachandra would die now then he will be reborn in the seventh hell!” The King was surprised by this answer. He again asked the same question and Mahavir replied that if the monk dies now then he will reborn in the 12th heavenly region! Now King Shrenik was much surprised by these answers and soon he heard sounds of joy. He asked Lord Mahavir about these strange sounds and Mahavir replied that,”Oh King! The monk Prasannachandra has attained Omniscience! Then Mahavir explained to the king that,” when you asked me first time that when would he go if he dies now? Then I replied that he will reborn in the Seventh Hell because at that time he was mentally fighting and killing the army. Then he controlled his mind and was doing confession because his miss contemplation caused by your minister Durmukh and on that time you asked me second time and I replied that he will reborn in the 12th Heaven. Then the monk continued to purify his thoughts and eventually he attained omniscience and you heard the voices of celebrations!
Then Mahavir explained to the King the value of thoughts. Thoughts can lead us to the hell and thoughts can lead us to the heaven, thoughts can lead the soul to liberation!

-Rahul Zota (Bhuj-Gujarat)

HOW THE MIND CAUSES ACCUMULANCE OF KARMAS

Every living being accumulate bad karmas by their body, speech and mind. According to the Jain Tradition a person can accumulate more karmas by his/her mind than body and speech. According to the last and 24th Tirthankar Lord Mahavir, if someone thinks or desires to kill any living being and he has not applied yet then he has accumulated the karmas of killing a living being. It is not important that he hasn’t killed physically but he has killed the living being mentally. His thoughts create vibrations that cause the microscopic particles to disturb and the particles makes creates such situations that the person who first thought to kill will somehow kill the opposite person in future. The time depends on the vibrations of his thoughts. It can come in action in his present life or in his next births. Here is a good example how violent thoughts can be harmful to the soul.

In ancient Jain scriptures there is a story of a monk who is walking in a jungle in darkness. He cannot see on the ground because of darkness. He is walking on a dry leafs and grass. He felt it and imagined as if he was walking on insects. Instead of stopping himself he continued walking with thinking and imagines that he is walking on insects. In fact he was walking on the grass and leafs. As a result he accumulated deep karmas of killing thousands of insects just by his thought and because he didn’t stopped him to walk there. He also never confessed about that and after completing his life he went to the hell and after that he went to the infinite cycle of birth and death. He washed out his chance of liberation!

From the above fact we can see that how destructive are thoughts. Jainism has given more importance to control of mind. Even Lord Buddha has said the same and has given more importance to control thoughts first. Recently I have read the book “The Secret”. The book deals on the importance of thoughts but saying that to accomplish your wish you should imagine mentally about your dream so the nature will create it for you! But there is not mentioned that how much time would it take? It can fulfill your dream before you die or in your next birth! The same thing has been mentioned in both Jainism and Buddhism. Both founded by the omniscient lords and is hundred percent correct. Instead of saying “to desire” these religions has the concept of “stop desires”, and control your emotions if you want liberation. Because your dreams and desires will extend your soul’s existence in mundane world. The main aim is purify your thoughts to destroy and accumulating new karmas.

Also read this example.

-Rahul Zota (Bhuj-Gujarat)

LORD PARSHVANATH - 23rd JAIN TIRTHANKAR

Past-Incarnation

Lord Parshvanath was the 23rd Tirthankar (ford-maker) of Jainism who lived during 877-777 BCE and has been accepted as a historical figure.

Like other Tirthankars, important events of earlier incarnations of the being that became Lord Parshvanath are available in Jain scriptures. Study of these incidents reveals that amnesty and compassion played a major part in his life and progress toward purity of soul. In every incarnation his rival, Kamath, continued to torture him and he continued to forgive and forget.

Kamath and Marubhuti

The soul that was to be Lord Parshvanath was inspired to take the direction of purity in its birth as Marubhuti. He was born to the wife of Purohit Vishabhuti living in Potanpur city. His elder brother was Kamath. As Kamath was cruel, conceited, and a debauch, in spite of being the elder son it was Marubhuti who succeeded his father on the post of Rajpurohit (the director of ritual ceremonies of the king and state). Attracted toward the beautiful wife of Marubhuti, Vasundhara, Kamath seduced her. When Kamath’s wife came to know about the affair, she tried to dissuade him in vain and told Marubhuti about it. Marubhuti made a secret inquiry and conveyed everything in detail to the king. Kamath was exiled by the king. He became a mendicant and started doing rigorous penance.

After sometime Marubhuti felt that it was because of his report that Kamath was insulted and thrown out of the state; as such he should go and beg forgiveness from his elder brother. Marubhuti went into the jungle near Kamath and bowed before him seeking his pardon. Instead of getting pacified, Kamath was over powered by the desire of vengeance. He picked up a large stone and hit Marubhuti on the head. Marubhuti died on the spot and reincarnated as an elephant.

Birth as an Elephant

The soul of Marubhuti was reborn as an elephant in the forests of Vindhyachal. It became the leader of the herd. One day when an ascetic was standing in meditation in the Vindhyachal area, the king elephant came near him. The memory of its past life precipitated and it became a follower of the ascetic and turned mellow and detached. One day the elephant rushed into and stationed itself in the middle of a pond in order to save himself from a forest fire. The being that was Kamath had taken birth as a serpent of the Kurkut species. When it saw the elephant, the serpent recognized it as its enemy from the earlier birth. The serpent landed on the head of the elephant and stung it. The elephant equally tolerated the pain and died peacefully.

Suvarnbahu Chakravarti

In his third birth the being that was Marubhuti reincarnated as a god in the Sahasrar dimension. From there it descended and was born as prince Kiranveg in Mahavideh area. He furthered his progress towards purity by becoming an ascetic and was killed once again by the Kamath, now born as a snake. His next birth was as a god in the Achyut Kalpa dimension. From there he came to Mahavidh area as king Vajranabh. Kamath was born as a Bhil aborigine who shot Vajranabh, who had become an ascetic now, with an arrow. Reincarnating in the Madhyam Graiveyak dimension of gods, the being that was to be Parshvanath enjoyed the fruits of his pious Karma.

In his eighth birth this being was born in the royal family of Puranpur in the Mahavideh area. After ascending the throne Suvarnbahu conquered six continents and became a Chakravarti. In later part of his life he became an ascetic and did purest of meditations to earn Tirthakar-nam-and-gotra-karma. During this birth also, this being was killed by its old enemy Kamath who was born as a fierce lion. From here this being went to the Pranat dimension of gods.

Birth of Lord Parshvanath

Descending from the Pranat dimension of gods, the being that was Marubhuti came into the womb of Vama Devi, wife of King Ashvasen of Varanasi. On the tenth day of the dark half of the month of Paush Vama Devi gave birth to a son. At the time of his naming ceremony king Ashvasen announced that during her pregnancy Vama Devi one night saw a snake slithering on the bed near his flank. She woke him up and saved him from the impending danger. As such, he was naming the new born as Parshva (flank).

Prince Parshva was very handsome and intelligent. His fame reached Kushasthalpur and princess Prabhavatti, daughter of king Prasenjit, determined to become his wife. Before a proposal for marriage could be sent the king of Kalinga lay a seize of Kushasthalpur and sought the hand of Prabhavati in marriage. King Prasenjit, aware of the might of Yavanraj sent a messenger to Varanasi for help. King Ashvasen got irritated at the misconduct of Yavanraj and commands the army in this battle, Ashvasen was well aware of the ability and prowess of prince Parshva; he accepted proposal without any hesitation.

Before the prince started for the battle field the king of gods sent a divine and air worthy chariot for Parshva. After reaching the battle field the and prior to giving the orders to attack, Parshva sent a message to Yavanraj that now Prasenjit was under the protection of king Ashvasen, and as such he should break his seize of Kushasthalpur or face the great army of Varanasi and divine powers of Parshva. Although the youthful Yavanraj and some of his younger ministers were provoked, a senior minister informed him that the king of gods himself sided Parshva. He not only had divine powers but also the flying chariot of Indra. To fight Parshva was to embrace certain defeat. Yavanraj accepted the advice of the senior minister and surrendered before prince Parshva without a fight. He offered rich gifts to Parshva and became a friend of Prasenjit.

Victorious Parshva Kumar returned to Varanasi. King Prasenjit also came to Varanasi with his daughter Prabhavati and requested king Ashvasen to marry Parshva Kumar with Prabhavati. Parshva was averse to the bond of marriage. However, his parents persuaded him and he could not hurt their feelings. He was married to Prabhavati but led a simple and detached life.

One day prince Parshva was enjoying a view of the town from the balcony of his palace. When he saw groups of men and women, carrying items for worship, passing by, he asked out of curiosity if it was some day of religious ceremonies. His attendants informed him that some mendicant named Kamath is doing a harsh penance named Panch-agni Tap (five fire penance). The citizens are going to pay homage to him with all these presents. Prince Parshva also proceeded to witness this strange scene. As he was endowed with three levels of knowledge since birth, Parshva perceived everything worth knowing about this person at once. This was the same being that had been nurturing an intense feeling of vengeance for him for many births. After completing his age in the hell he was born in a poor family. Driven by hunger and poverty he had become a mendicant and was influencing the ignorant masses with his harsh but ill conceived penance.

When prince Parshva came near the mendicant he saw that some logs of wood were burning all around the mendicant. Inside one of the logs was a pair of serpents, writhing in pain due to the intense heat of the burning flames. Moved by a feeling of compassion the prince said to the mendicant, "Burning a five sensed being in fire, what sort of self improvement do you strive for?" The mendicant replied angrily, "Prince! You are a child; go and enjoy your princely games. It is mendicants like me who know about religion not you. How can you claim that some being is burning in the fire around me?"

All the efforts to persuade him that a pair of serpents was burning in the fire went in vain. Parshva then ordered his attendants to draw the specific log aside and split it. As soon as the attendants did that, a pair of serpents, partially scorched, fell on the ground writhing in pain. Realizing that they were about to die, prince Parshva said to them that they should not be annoyed with the ignorant mendicant and should remain silent during the last moments of their lives. He also recited the Namokar Mantra. As a result of silent thoughts and hearing the Namokar Mantra, after death the pair was born as the king and queen of the gods of the Nag Kumar clan (Dharanendra and Padmavati).

The mendicant became angry and kept on adding more fuel to the fire of vengeance

Path of Renunciation

This incident inspired Parshva Kumar to step on the right path and show the path to the masses misled by such ignorant hypocrites. While he was contemplating this, he one day went to garden and chanced to see some frescoes about the incidents of life of the 22nd Tirthankar Lord Arishtanemi. These vivid paintings pushed him to the decision of becoming an ascetic. He sought permission of his father and started the year long charity. On the eleventh day of the dark half of the month of Paush he became an ascetic under an Ashok tree.

One day Parshva-muni was standing in meditation in Kaushamv jungle. God Dharanendra arrived there to pay homage. When he saw scorching sun rays falling on the meditating ascetic, he covered Parshva-muni with canopy of snake hoods. It is said that this area later became famous as Ahichhatra.

Final Affliction By Kamath
One day Parshva-muni was standing in meditation under a banyan tree in an Ashram outside a village. The being of Kamath who was incarnated as a celestial being saw Lord Lord Parshva and identified him as his enemy by his Clairvoyance. Driven by the animosity of earlier births, Meghamali arrived at the spot where Parshva-muni his extremely loud and fearsome laughter. When Lord Parshva remained unmoved, Meghmali inflicted pain on him by attacking in the form of various animals. Lord Parshva tolerated all these afflictions with equanimity. Meghamli’s anger reached its peak.



Now he created dark and dense clouds in the skies. The sky was completely covered by dark rain-bearing clouds. With fearsome rumbling and thunder and lightening it started raining heavily. Meghamali caused so much rain that it flooded the whole area. Lord Parshva tolerated the torment of this torrential rain like the Meru mountain. The water level rose and it reached the tip of Lord Parshva's nose. He was still unmoved in his meditation. At this peak of the affliction, the throne of god Dharanendra trembled. He came to know about the incident through his divine powers and reached the spot with Padmavati. One of these snake-gods created a platform under the feet of Lord Parshva and the other a canopy of its multiple hoods over hid head. And thus they worshipped Lord Parshva. 

This incident has a mythological touch but we have to observe and find out the essence out of this. The moral of this incident is equanimity. Lord Parshva performed great equanimity as he didn't show hatred towards Meghmali who was afflicting him and didn't show love to Dharnendra and Padmavati who were worshipping him. The soul is complete in itself. It never loses its own essential qualities and never gains anything from outside. The soul is a substance with infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite power and infinite bliss. These essential qualities never leaves an individual, independent soul in any circumstances. When this fact is accepted we can practice equanimity with high stability. That is what Lord Parshva did and got rid of high amount of karmic atoms attached with his soul since infinite births.

Omniscience

After eighty three days of penance and spiritual practices Parshva-muni came to Ashrampad garden in Varanasi and stood in meditation under a Dharanendra tree. With fast increasing purity he attained enlightenment or omniscience on the fourth day of the dark half of the month of Chaitra. Now he was visualizing everything in the entire universe.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FORD

 Lord Parshvanath gave his first discourse on the form of religion. He propagated the four dimensional religion for upliftment of the soul. Lord Parshvanath preached four vows.  The four vows preached by Lord Parshvanath are: not to kill, not to lie, not to steal, and not to own property. The vow of chastity was without a doubt, implicitly included in the last vow, but in the two hundred and fifty years that elapsed between the Nirvana of Parshvanath and the preaching of Lord Mahavira, considering the situation of that time, included the fifth vow of chastity explicitly to the existing four vows.   

Inspired by the discourse of Lord Parshvanath, many members of his family including his father Ashvasen, mother Vama Devi and wife Prabhavati renounced the mundane life. Many other princes and scholars including the famous Vedic scholar Shubhdatta also took renunciation after hearing to his magic discourse. Lord Parshvanath established the four pronged religious organization. He had eight chief disciples with Shubgdatta being the first and most senior.

Although no detailed mention is available about the areas visited by Lord Parshvanath, it can be surmised from various incidents and related stories that he covered a considerably wide area of the subcontinent. It appears that he visited Kashi-kaushal (Uttar Pradesh), Nepal, Bang (Bengal), Kalinga (Orissa), Anga (Magadh), Vidarbh, Konkan, Saurashtra (in Gujarat) etc. Among his followers were Shakya Kings, rulers of Magadh (grandfather and father of king Shrenik) and many others.

Even during the period of Lord Mahavir (the 24th Tirthankar) the faith and devotion for Lord Parshvanath was wide spread. The masses strongly believed that remembering the name of Lord Parshvanath was the panacea for all troubles as well as the means of success. This was the reason that in Lord Mahavir’s time Lord Parshvanath was popularly known as "Purushadaniya".

Many scholars are of the opinion that the Chaturyam Dharm (the four dimensional religion) was the leading and prominent religion in whole of India during that period. Lord Buddha also got initiated into this school in the early part of his spiritual life. Later he evolved and propagated his eight pronged religion out of this only.

Lord Parshvanath was a householder for thirty years and then an ascetic for seventy years. When he was 100 years old he got liberated on the fifth day of the bright half of the month of Shravan at Sammet Shikhar Mountain.

It is believed that the time span between the Nirvana of Lord Parshvanath and Lord Mahavir’s launching of his own school was about 250 years. There is a mention of four prominent leaders of Lord Parshvanath’s school:

1. Disciple Shubhdatta (Shumbh)

2. Arya Haridatta

3. Acharya Samudra Suri

4. Arya Keshi Shraman

The last one is believed to have existed between 166 to 250 years after the Nirvana of Lord Parshvanath. Arya Keshi Shraman was a forceful Acharya. The staunch non-believer king Pradeshi became a highly devoted Jain house-holder under his influence only. There were nine groups of five hundred ascetics each, in the large religious organization headed by Keshi-muni. These groups worked in far fling areas like Tailang (Andhra), Konkan and Maharashtra. He himself wandered in the Magadh area with one thousand ascetics.