Today April 18th 2011 is Mahavir Jayanti

[Leila Raven]

Mahavir Jayanti is the main Jain festival. Mahavirswami is the twenty-fourth Tirthankar. He was born in 599 BC at Kshatriyakund near modern Patna in Bihar. His father, King Siddhartha, and his mother, Queen Trishla, were very religious people and followers of Lord Parshwanath, the twenty-third Tirthankar. When Queen Trishla was expecting the baby she had 14 beautiful dreams (some believe sixteen dreams). When the learned scholars were asked about the dreams they said she was going to have an extraordinary child., one who will show the path to true happiness to humanity.

Mahavir preached non-violence and prohibited any kind of killing. He also believed that the most virtuous life is spent sitting still and fasting, as then a man does not run the risk of injuring life even involuntarily, by swallowing or treading upon insects. On his birth anniversary, every Jain resolves to follow his teachings.

It is believed that at the exact moment of his birth, the life forms in all the three worlds were cheerful and content. Several gods and goddesses descended from the heavens to pay homage to the Tirthankara. They bathed him ceremonially and named him Vardhaman, Vir, Mahavira, Ativira and Samvati. The child was of exceptional beauty and developed great physical and spiritual strength. At the age of thirty, Mahavir renounced the material world, and sat for meditation. After 12 years of meditation under an Ashoke tree, also called Jonesia Ashoka, he attained the ultimate enlightenment. The divine Gods witnessed this great event, and carried him in a palanquin to a park where he was put on a five-tiered throne and acknowledged as Mahavira. Here he stripped himself of all his clothes. Instead of shaving his head, he tore his hair out from the roots, for he was above pain. According to the Digambaras, Mahavir wore no clothes thereafter, but the Svetambaras believe that Indra presented him with a white robe.

 

May we live a life of peace, compassion and love with respect for all living things....

There is no enemy out of your soul.The real enemies live inside yourself, they are anger, proud, curvedness, greed, attachmentes and hate.
~ Lord Mahavir.

It is better to win over self than to win over a million enemies.
~ Lord Mahavir.

The soul comes alone and goes alone, no one companies it and no one becomes its mate.
~ Lord Mahavir.

"Once when he sat [in meditation]... they cut his flesh... tore his hair... picked him up and... dropped him... the Venerable One bore the pain."
~ Acaranga Sutra.

"Can you hold a red-hot iron rod in your hand merely because some one wants you to do so? Then, will it be right on your part to ask others to do the same thing just to satisfy your desires? If you cannot tolerate infliction of pain on your body or mind by others' words and actions, what right have you to do the same to others through your words and deeds?"
~ Lord Mahavir.

A living body is not merely an integration of limbs and flesh but it is the abode of the soul which potentially has perfect perception (Anant-darshana), perfect knowledge (Anant-jnana), perfect power (Anant-virya), and perfect bliss (Anant-sukha).
~ Lord Mahavir.

[Leila Raven]

One of  our members posted they would be celebrating this today, and gave me the opportunity to re-learn about and share this. The story is very similar to that of the Buddah, and I seem to remember something in a religious studies class about all of those interconnections many years ago when I was stuffing myself behind a lot of university desks regularly. It was nice to re-research, wish I had more time to spend on looking into it more... so many things to learn about, hopping around like a raven distracted by shiny things everywhere...