The happy tidings of the birth of the Prince to King
Siddhartha and Queen Trishala was received with great joy by all residents
of Vaishali (Kundalapur) city and the Videha republic and the entire
region wore a festive appearance. King Siddhartha and his relatives
celebrated the occasion with royal pomp and glory. Common people also
participated in the
celebrations with great enthusiasm and love. They bedecked their houses
with lamps, flowers, buntings, and flags, adorned their bodies with new
garments and ornaments, decorated the streets with arches and auspicious
symbols, performed worships in the temples, sang eulogistic songs, staged
dance and drama performances and thus gave expression to their joy and
mirth in innumerable ways. In memory of this great event King Siddhartha
made special arrangements to give presents of different kinds to theneedy
and poor people of his republic.These festivities continued unabated for
ten days and on the twelfth day the auspicious naming ceremony of the
Prince was accomplished in the presence of the persons specially assembled
for the purpose. While addressing the gathering King Siddhartha declared
that "Since the conception of their child nine months ago we have
witnessed every prosperity in Vidaha republic, in Vaishali capital, in
Kundaipur suburb and in our family, we have decided to name the Prince as
`Vardhamana' (i.e. the Prosperous One): The declaration was highly
appreciated by the public with great applause.
The
child-prince Vardhamana was not only extremely beautiful but also
possessed various physical traits of an unusual nature: His limbs were
greatly proportionate and without defects of any kind. His body-structure
was strong and his body-odour was pleasant. His speech was soft and
melodious. His body possessed 1008 auspicious physical attributes like
Shankha (Conch), Chakra (circle), Kamala (lotus),
Dhanusha
(bow), etc. He also showed superb intelligence and developed grasping
capacity.
The news
about the most beautiful and talented child-prince Vardhamana did spread
far and wide and many persons of authority were eager to see the child-prince.Once
a couple of sages, named Sanjaya (or Sanjayanta) and Vijaya (or Vijayanta),
who had heard about the greatness of this baby-prince, came to see him. At
his very glance they felt so much exhilarated that they exclaimed: "How
beautiful he looks!" Not only this much; they also felt that their
philosophical doubts, which were troubling their mind since long, had
disappeared.They went their way duly satisfied after bestowing the name of
`Sanmati' (i.e. Good Intellect), and proclaimed a great future for him.
As Prince
Vardhamana entered boyhood, people soon realised that he possessed in
great measure the rare qualities like bravery, self-control, fearlessness,
helping-nature, courage etc. Many events gave eloquent testimony of the
attributes of his gifted personality. Once while Prince Vardhamana was
engrossed in play with his friends in the courtyard of his Palace, he was
suddenly disturbed to hear a loud noise of screams in :fear and
helplessness from the streets of Kundalapura. Instantly, he came out of
the Palace and ran towards the site of the noise. There he saw that one
royal elephant had gone amok and that the citizens were running
frightfully in different directions in a frantic bid to escape from the
onslaught of the mad elephant. This dangerous sight did not create any
fear in his mind. On the contrary he immediately showed his presence of
mind and staring straight at the elephant he loudly ordered the elephant
to remain calm. To the great surprise of the frightened persons the
elephant instantly became peaceful. After pacifying the elephant, Prince
Vardhamana personally mounted the elephant and in a cool manner directed
the elephant towards its resting place. People were tremendously impressed
by this rare feat of courage and bravery and from that time began to
address him by the name "Vira" i.e. the Hero.
On another
occasion when Prince Vardhamana was out in the royal gardens playing with
his companions the game of hide and seek, he and his playmates were
surprised to hear clearly a hissing sound. When the sound came quite
close, they found a. large poisonous cobra coming towards them. The boys
immediately scattered away in all directions, screaming with fear,. but
the Prince did not budge an inch and stood calm and quiet at his
place.When the cobra came almost near him hissing out poisonous sparks
vehemently and tried to attack him, the Prince caught hold of its tail,
lifted it and threw it away easily. The playmates witnessed this unusual
feat of great courage with awe and surprise.But their curiosity became
highly increased when they saw the transformation of the cobra into a
semi-god. of the heavens.The real fact was that the cobra was the form
assumed by one good named `Sangama' to test the power and fearlessness of
Prince Vardhamana.After realising the strength and courage of Prince
Vardhamana, Sangama-deva revealed his real identity and in praise said to
him that he is indeed a Mahavira, i.e. a Great Hero. Sangama-deva was so
much over joyed that he placed the boy-prince on his
shoulder and
began to dance along with Chaladhara, Kakadhara and Pakshadhara, the three
close companions of Prince Vardhamana.
After this
incident Prince Vardhamana was known as Prince Mahavira and eventually `Mahavira'
became his popular name so much that later on Vardhamana was always
referred to as Mahavira. Other synonymous terms like `Ativira�,
�Viranatha� and �Mahativira� were also commonly used to denote him.
Because of his intimate connections with Vaishali city and Videha
republic, the names like �Vaishalika�, �Vaishaliya (i.e. belonging to
Vaishali), �Videhadatta� (i.e. given by Videha) and Videhasukumara' (i.e.
tender prince of Videha) are freely assigned to him. Since Vardhamana
hailed from the Jnatr or Jnatrika clan of the Kshtriyas, he was also
referred to as �Jnataputra�,. or Jnatrpufra� (i.e. the Son of the
JnatrClan). As the terms �Nata� or �Natha� are derived from the word
�Jnatr� many a time Vardhamana was mentioned as �Nataputta� (i.e. the son
of the Jnatr clan) in Pali literature and �Natha-kulanandana� or
�Nathanvaya� (i.e. hailing from the Jnatr clan or family) in Sanskrit
literature.
Prince
Mahavira's regular education started at the age of eight. Soon his
teachers realised the extraordinary talents possessed by him. He rapidly
began to imbibe knowledge imparted to him and even to show proficiency in
the acquired knowledge. He had the rare capacity to grasp easily any new
subject and to express effectively the learned subjects. His teachers
always used to appreciate the learned way in which he usually gave answers
to various questions.
3. The Youth
and the Aspirations:
Gradually
Prince Mahavira passed the stage of adolescene and entered adulthood. The
advent of youth bestowed additional charm and dignity on his natural
beautiful personality His physical strength increased to a great extent
and his knowledge developed beyond measure. His elligence becamemore acute
and his beauty surpassed the usual limits.Thus different facets of his
personality sufficiently bloomed as he be came a young man. Further, being
a Prince, all comforts and luxuries of the royal life were at his
disposal. He was very well connected to several important royal families
of the time through his father and especially through his mother.
In this way
young Prince Mahavira possessed various accom-plishments and developed a
handsome personality. He had all opportunities and different facilities to
build a political career for himself. But he never showed any inclination
towards harbouring political ambitions and securing more and more wordly
pleasur In fact, he never aspired for acquisition of material wealth and
political power.On the contrary Mahavira never took any interest in family
affair and in political matters.He did not indulge in extravagance of any
kind.Instead he always valued the virtue of self-control and invariably
attached great importance to the actual practiseof giving help to
others.He firmly believed in the principles of right conduct and of
equality towards all living beings. That is why it is stated that right
from his eighth-year Mahavira used to observe five Anu-Vratas (i. e: small
views) prescribed by Jaina religion. These facts clearly reveal that
aspirations of young Prince Mahavira were not towards leading a life of
worldly pleasants but were in the directions to lead a life of
self-control and to help others in securing ultimate happiness.
King
Sidhartha and Queen Trishala had an idea about these spiritual and
religious inclinations of their son, Mahavira. They were aware that he did
not belong to the category of ordinary Princess who are deeply interested
in building their political careers: They were equally conscious of
Mahavira's aversion to increase . worldlyattachments and his intense
desire to concentrate on thinking and self-contemplation. They were also
sure that Mahavira would eventually follow the path of asceticism
prescribed by Jaina religion and would achieve the highest - position as
the promulgator of Jaina religion.
Even though
these facts were weighing very heavily on the minds of King Siddhartha and
Queen Trishala, their parental affection goaded them to see that Mahavira
leads a married life before he embark on his path of spiritual progress.
They did not feel anything wrong in planning this householder's stage, in
the religion-oriented career of Mahavira because they knew that Lord
Rishabhadeva, the first Tirthankara entered the ascetic order after
leading a contented married life. They really thought that in deference to
their ardent desires Mahavira would adopt this course of life.
Accordingly
King Sidd.hartha and Queen Trishala gave to their relatives the indication
of their mind to arrange soon the marriage
ceremony of
their son, Mahavira. As many Kings of the time became aware of this
intention to get Mahavira married, they hastened to make their proposals.
Naturally different Kings vied with each other to have a matrimonial
alliance with this scion of the Jnatrka clan. Among these marriage
proposals King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala finally gave approval to the
proposal of Princess I,�,asllasla, the daughter of King Jitashatru and-
Queen Yashodaya of Kalinga State. This proposal was given highest
preference because Princess Yashoda was most superb in beauty and other
accomplishments among-the Princesses of the time. There was another
consideration also in the proposal of Princess Yashoda and that was she
happened to be the daughter of Yashodaya, who was younger sister of King
Siddhartha. Hence King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala finally decided to
get Prince Mahavira 'married toPrincess Yashoda.
When Prince
Mahavira came to know of the negotiations going on about his marriage, he
felt extreme grief about these developments. He never harboured any idea
to indulge in sensual pleasure and did not even think of the gratification
of sex-desire. In fact he had already made up his mind not to get himself
entangled in any 'kind of worldly activity which would detract him from
his path of spiritual progress. That is, why Mahavira outright rejected
the marriage proposal and in a polite manner conveyed to his parents his
firm resolve to observe strict celibacy throughout his life and to devote
his energies in future to conquer the worldly desires and passions. He
further made clear that he aspired to emulate the examples of four earlier
Tirthankaras, viz. Vasupujya,
Mallinatha,
Neminatha and Parshvanath, who remained celibate and revealed the path of
liberation to the people.
This well
thought out and planned decision of Prince Mahavira made King Siddlxartha
and Queen Trishala to reconsider their proposal of Mahavira's marriage
with Yashoda. The parents were completely convinced of his firm reso3ve
and hence did not wish to come in his way of realising his goal of life.
The parents, therefore, did not press the matter further and accordingly
communicated their decision, to allow Mahavira to lead a celibate life, to
King Jitashatru of Kalinga.Thus Prince Mahavira "was ft free to realise
his aspirations in life. Naturally Mahavir felt a great relief and began
to plan to take definite step in the desired direction.
