Bhagwan Parshvanath – Diksha Kalyanak

Parshva, the Blessed One, knew that the fruit of his own pleasure-karma had been consumed and set his mind on mendicancy. As if knowing his intentions, the Lokantika gods came at that time and announced to Parshva, “Lord, found a congregation.” Then the Master began to give gifts for a year with money furnished by the Jrmbhakas instructed by Vaisravana. The initiation-ceremony of Parshva, the Supreme Lord, was held by the Vasavas, sakras and others, and by the kings, Asvasena and others. He got into a litter, Visala by name, carried by gods and mortals and went to the garden Asramapada. The Lord Parshva, wearing deva-dusya given by Vasavas, got out of the palanquin, and laid aside ornaments, etc. On the forenoon on the thirteenth of the dark half of Paush, the moon being in Radha, observing a three-day fast, the Master became a mendicant with three hundred kings. At that time the Lord’s knowledge called “Mind-reading” (Manahparyava gyan) arose. For it arises at the initiation of all the Arhats. On the next day the Lord broke his fast in a hamlet, Kopakata, with a milk-pudding in the house of the householder Dhanya. Unhindered like the wind, the Lord wandered in villages, mines, cities, etc., an ordinary ascetic, his gaze fixed six feet ahead. One day in his wandering the Master came to a hermitage near a town and the sun set. The teacher of the World stood like a pratima under a banyan tree near a well, motionless as its foot.

Attacks by Meghamalin

Now the Meghakumara, the Asura Meghamalin, knew by clairvoyance (Avadhi gyan) his own crime in a former birth. Recalling his hostility to Parshva in each birth, the Asura (a kind of Dev) blazed inside with anger like an ocean with submarine fire. Meghamalin, the basest of gods, blind from anger, approached to attack Parshvanath. The Asura created tigers, their mouths terrifying from saw-like teeth, with claws the shape of hooks, tawny-eyed. The Blessed One was not shaken by them, his eyes motionless in meditation; they went away somewhere as if from fear of the fire of his meditation. The Asura also created elephants, trumpeting, dripping with mada; bears, filling the heavens with their growls; panthers, cruel, like an army of Yama; scorpions, splitting rocks even with the tip of the sting; serpents, burning trees by their glance, were created there by him with the intention of attacking the Lord. The Lord still did not stir from meditation. Then he created vampires holding knives, like clouds with lightning, with projecting teeth; serpents, with long legs and feet, discharging long flames from the mouth, like a stomach-fire, they attacked the Lord on all sides, like dogs an elephant.The Lord was not shaken by them, absorbed in the pool of nectar of meditation. They too fled somewhere, like owls at dawn. Then exceedingly angered, the Asura Meghamalin himself created clouds in the sky like the night at the end of the world.

Lightning flashed in the sky, terrifying like a tongue of Death; thunder, splitting open the universe, as it were, spread over the skies. A terrible darkness took place, taking away the function of the eye. Heaven and earth became one as if sewed together. With the evil intention, “I will destroy this former enemy,” Meghamalin began to rain like a cloud at the end of the world. The sleeping birds flew up and flew down from the trees; boars and buffaloes moved here and there. Creatures were dragged away by the streams of water terrifying from speed; even big trees were rooted up from the roots.

In a moment the water reached Parsva Swamin’s ankles; his knees, his hips, his neck. In that wide-spread water, the Lord had the beautiful appearance of the great lotus, the home of Laksmi, in the lake Padma. The Master was motionless in the water, like a jeweled pillar, and, his eyes fixed on the end of his nose, did not move at all from his meditation. When the water reached the tip of Sri Parsva Swamin’s nose, then the throne of Dharanendra, the Indra of the Uragas (Nagas) shook. He knew by clairvoyance, “Oh! Kamatha, practicing foolish penance, attacks my lord, considering him an enemy.” Then the Naga-king went with his wives to the Teacher of the World with speed, as if competing with the mind. Dharanendra bowed to the Master and placed beneath his feet a tall lotus with erect stalk, resembling the seat of an omniscient. The serpent-king covered the Lord’s back, sides, and chest with his own coils and made an umbrella with seven hoods over his head.

The Blessed One, standing comfortably on the lotus with a stalk the length of the water, absorbed in meditation, looked like a rajahansa. Dharanendra’s wives, their minds penetrated by devotion, sang, danced, etc. before Parsvha Swami. A dance was displayed with various beautiful dance-steps, splendid with dramatic actions of the hands, etc. Absorbed in meditation, the Lord remained indifferent to both the Naga-lord Dharanendra and the Asura Meghamalin. This being so, when he saw Meghamalin raining angrily, the Naga-king, angered, said to him with contempt: “O villain, what is this undertaking for your own disadvantage, evil-minded wretch. I am the servant of the Compassionate. Henceforth, I will not tolerate it. What crime against you was committed by the Lord, when he showed the snake being burned inside the log, if you were prevented from sin at that time? Good advice then led to your hostility, villain, like rain-water on saline soil. You are an enemy for no reason to the Lord here who is a brother (to everyone). Villain, if you have injured him in this way, you will die today.” After hearing that speech, Meghamalin looked down and saw Parshva standing so, attended by the Naga-Indra.

Terrified, he thought: “My power, great as it is, is useless against him. He, an ocean of compassion, able to grind mountains with his fist, does not reduce me to ashes. Nevertheless, I am afraid of Indra Dharanendra. I cannot remain in the three worlds because of the crime against him, the lord of the three worlds. Where shall I go for a refuge, if this lord is a refuge?” Thus reflecting, he destroyed at once the expanse of water; terrified, he went to the Master himself, bowed, asked forgiveness of the Lord of the World.

This Article is taken from

The Jain Saga
by Kalikaal Sarvagya Hemchandracharya

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Reference
1. Kalpasutra Chitrasamput