Shree Abhinandan Swami
4th Jain Tirthankar
Upon actual practice of penance and detachment from materialistic power makes a person attain moksha. Such realized souls have the blessings of God from three births and become Tirthankara. Their purpose of coming to the world is to help the people traverse the ocean of birth and death. They educate the secret to attain liberation. Attachment towards the worldly things will not yield any result. Hence, one must focus towards reaching God by destroying all the internal enemies including greed, anger, pride, and jealousy. Tirthankaras help humanity to cross the Samsara Sagara.
Per the Jain cosmology, they believe that the time cycle “Kalachakra” will never come to a halt. They further believed that the cosmic cycle has two divisions namely the Utsarpini and Avsarpini. Utsarpini, otherwise known as rising era and ethics, religion, health, etc., shows progression towards positive upliftment. On the other hand, during Avsarpini the declining era leads to the worst stage.
Utsarpini and Avsarpini get divided by six different periods each. Between each half cycle of the time, it is believed to have 24 Tirthankaras. So the count of Tirthankaras goes infinite. Currently according to Jainism, Avsarpini phase fifth Ara is happening. After 19000 yrs., the sixth Ara would start. Sixth Ara will continue for 21000 yrs., and then Utsarpini will begin.
Birth and Childhood of Abhinandannath
Abhinandannath was born as the Manglavati King. Manglavati was also called as Ratnasanchay town in the place called Purva Mahavideha. He was known as King Mahabal. He lived a simple life and was very down to earth. He always wondered by hearing his people praising him. He was not sure about the praise for doing nothing. That was his simplicity. He always enjoyed criticism as that helped him to know and correct his mistakes. He believed that only fixing one’s virtues liberation becomes possible.
He followed the teachings of Acharya Vimal Suri regarding the purpose of human existence. Vimal Suri’s sayings very much influenced him. He got closer to the goal of achieving salvation. He started getting detached from the material possession and at the end obtained Diksha from Vimal Suri.
His thirst for saintly realization all through his previous births gained him the status of the fourth Tirthankara in the Jain religion.
King Samvar and Queen Siddhartha of Ayodhya gave birth to Abhinandannath. Even before the conception of Abhinandan, the Queen got all the fourteen dreams confirming the birth of a Tirthankara. His formation in his mother’s womb created an excellent vibration on the surroundings. Entire kingdom felt the peace, prosperity, and happiness. All the people in the country enjoyed each other company. There existed only celebrations and fun across the country. People greeted each other with love and cheer.
Queen Siddhartha delivered a boy baby on a Sukla Paksham the second day of the Magh month. Sukla Paksham means a period that falls between the New moon and full moon called bright half of the month. Due to the celebrations and greetings exchanged all through the baby’s presence in the mother’s womb the priest named the baby as Abhinandan (greeting). Yes, in all praise of the new born soul. Everyone greeted each other irrespective of their age, status, and caste.
He grew in the richness as a Prince. He always lived in humility. He got married to many princesses. But he never enjoyed the ocean of married life. He always wanted to get detached. But his father and King Samvar while reading a book got some spark. This made him decide to attain Mukti and thus handed over the kingdom to Abhinandan and went to the forest in search of peace and liberation.
Renunciation Path
Abhinandan did not decline the responsibility and started ruling the kingdom with all his power and wisdom. He did all good to his subjects. But as years passed by his detachment also grew very strongly with his age. One day in his meditation he saw his previous birth as a flash of a movie and robustly decided to practice penance.
Hence he handed over his responsibility as a king to the right person in the kingdom and left the palace. He practiced dhyana and severe penance in the thick forest to attain asceticism. All his penance paid him results. On the fourteenth day of Krishna Paksham of Paush month, he achieved Nirvana. Krishna Paksham is the period between the Full moon and New moon, and it is also called as dark half of the month.
Nirvana
Then he started going around people and educated them the value of life. He preached Jain philosophy. He urged them to follow a pious life to attain moksha. He helped them to get liberated from the entire struggle in the birth and death life cycle. He made them understand the difference between attachment and detachment. He said detachment from material comfort alone cannot lead to salvation but to follow the spiritual path.
He gave them the way to achieve peace in life. He showed them the state of bliss, and also asked them to fight their inner enemies like ego, greed, etc. Only getting detached from all four ghati karma people can become the arihantas (destroyer of all enemies).
After several years of his preaching, many followed his path of renunciation. He reached the stage of attaining omniscience. On the eighth day of the Sukla Paksham of the Vaisakha month at Sammed Shikhar, he attained Nirvana.
Conclusion
Bhagavan Abhinandannath came to this world with the purpose of enlightening humanity and paved the way to attain Mukti. His firm belief, passion, and simplicity fetched him many followers. All of them understood the goal of life and worked towards achieving liberation.
He well supported the humanity to detach from the worldly life and connect with God. He purified people on the earth with his preaching’s and taught them to get rid of all karmas.
The existence of souls like Bhagavan Abhinandannath in India is such a privilege for the humanity. Such realized souls not only attain liberation for self but also help all to reach the ultimate goal of birth as humankind.
source religioustalks.com
