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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 Panchagni 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 every thing 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?” (P-3/1)
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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 equanimous during the last moments of their lives. He also recited the
Namokar Mantra. As a result of equanimous 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). (P-3/2)
The mendicant became angry and kept on adding more fuel to the fire of vengeance. After death he reincarnated as the evil
god Meghmali.
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 a garden and changed to see some forces about the
incidents of life of Bhagavan Arishtanemi. These vivid paintings pushed him to the decision of becoming an ascetic. He
sought permission of his father and started the yearlong 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 Saushamb jungle. God Dharanendra arrived there to pay homage.
When he saw scorching sunrays falling on the meditating ascetic, he covered Parshva-muni with a canopy of snake hoods.
It is said that this area later became famous as Ahichhatra.
One day Parshva-muni was standing in meditation under a banyan tree in an Ashram outside a village. The evil god Meghmali,
the Kamath of earlier birth, through his evil powers became aware of this. Driven by the animosity of earlier births, Meghmali
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arrived at this pot where Parshva-muni was standing meditation. He took the form of a ghost and tried to disturb Parshvamuni
with his extremely loud and fearsome laughter. When Parshva-muni remained unmoved, Meghmali inflicted pain on
him by attacking in the form of various animals. Parshva-muni tolerated all these afflictions with equanimity. Meghmali’s
anger reached its peak. (P-4/1)
Now he created dark and dense clouds in the skys. The sky was completely covered by dark rain-bearing clouds. With
fearsome rumbling and thunder and lightening it started raining heavily. Meghmali caused so much rain that it flooded the
whole area. Parshva-muni tolerated the torment of this torrential rain Parshvanath’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 Parshva-muni and the other a canopy of its multiple hoods over his head. Dharanendra admonished Meghmali whom then
fell at the feet of Parshva-muni and sought his forgiveness. (P-4/2)
After eighty-three days of penance and spiritual practices Parshva-muni came to Ashrampad garden in Varanasi and stood in
meditation under a Dhataki tree. With fast increasing purity he attained omniscience on the forth day of the dark half of the
month of Chaitra. The gods created the divine pavilion. Bhagavan Parshvanath gave his first discourse on the form of
religion. He propagated the four dimensional religion (Ahimsa, truth, non-stealing and non-possession) for upliftment of the
soul.
Inspired by the discourse of Bhagavan Parshvanath, many members of his family including his father Ashvasen, mother
Vama Devi, and wife Prabhavati took Diksha from him. Many other princes and scholars including the famous Vedic scholar
Shubhdatta also took Diksha after hearing to his discourse. Bhagavan Parshvanath established the four pronged religious
organization. He had eight chief disciples with Shubhdatta being the first and most seniors.
Although no detailed mention is available about the areas visited by Bhagavan 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 Kashikaushal
(Uttar Pradesh), Nepal, Bang (Bengal), Kalinga (Orissa), Anga (Magadh), Vidarbh, Konkan, Saurashtra etc. Among
his followers were Shakya kings, rulers of Magadh (grandfather and father of king Shrenik) and many others.
Amar Muni - Tirthankar Charitra - Surana # 27
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