20 September 2013

Bhagwan Naminath - 21st Tirthankar


The being that was to be Bhagavan Naminath purified his soul during his birth as king Siddharth of Kshambi town in East Mahavideh. He reincarnated as a god in the Aparajit dimension. This being then descended into the womb of queen Vipra, wife of king Vijay of Mithila. As the queen had seen fourteen auspicious things in her dream at the moment of conception, the augurs informed that the child to be born was going to be a Chakravarti or a Tirthankar.

During the pregnancy period once Mithila was attacked by some very powerful kings. Peace loving king Vijay was at a loss to find a peaceful solution and was worried. An expert augur told the king that the pregnant queen should go to the roof of the palace and look at the attacking armies. The queen followed the instructions and threw a loving glance at the large armies stationed on the fields outside the town. The aura of the pious soul in the womb was so powerful that it cast a pacifying spell on the attackers. The kings who were sure to win the battle, surrendered and bowed before king Vijay.

This incident inspired the king to name the new born as Naminath. Born on the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Sravan, Naminath had a happy childhood. When he became young he was married and later was given the reign of the kingdom. After a long and peaceful reign he became an ascetic on the ninth day of the dark half of the month of Ashadh. After nine months he attained omniscience under a Bakul Tree in a garden near Mithila. His first discourse was on the subject of right perception. After a long period of religious and spiritual activities he went to Sammet sikhar and got liberated on the tenth day of the dark half of the month of Vaishakh.

The tenth Chakravarti Harishen was his contemporary and the eleventh Chakravarti Jai came in his religious tradition, through much later.

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