Shree ParshvaNath
23th Jain Tirthankar
23th Jain Tirthankar
Previous Birth
During the previous birth, Parshvanath was incarnated as Marubhuti. His father was Purohit Vishnubhuti living in the Potanpur city. Kamath was Marubhuti’s elder brother. Kamath was wicked and cruel. Hence Purohit always taught Marubhuti the value of human being and existence of life. Both Kamath and Marubhuti grew up and got married. Kamath seduced his brother’s wife, and Marubhuti complained his act to the king. The king sent away Kamath to the forest. Marubhuti felt guilty of his act and went to ask pardon from his brother. But Kamath being very cruel killed Marubhuti by hitting a stone on his head.
Marubhuti died and reincarnated as an elephant and wandered in the Vindhyachal forests. Due to its past karma, it became the leader of the elephant herd. When there was a fire in the woods, to protect every being the elephant went to the middle of the river and a serpent bit the elephant to death. The snake was born as Kamath and hence killed Marubhuti once again in his incarnation as an elephant.
The Parshvanath was reincarnated as a god in the Sahasrar dimension. In his next birth, he was born as Prince Kiranveg located in the Mahavideha area. Kamath was again reborn as a snake and killed Prince Kiranveg. Then Parshvanath was reincarnated as God in the Achyut Kalpa dimension. Again he was born as King Vajranabh. Kamath was reborn this time as a Bhil aborigine and killed Vajranabh. Next Parshvanath was born as a god in the Madhyam Graiveyak dimension. After getting relieved from all his previous karmas, he was born as Suvarnbabu to a royal family, and as a Chakravarti, he ruled his kingdom and attained Diksha to embrace an ascetic life.
Finally, Parshvanath’s ninth birth was as a Tirthankara. He was born to Queen Vama Devi. She along with King Aswasena was ruling the kingdom in Varanasi. They belonged to the Ikshvaku dynasty.
Queen dreamt about fourteen auspicious things in her dream and was happy that she imagined as a mother of a Tirthankara. A Digambar sect of Jainism believed that sixteen dreams would indicate the birth of a Tirthankara.
Queen Vama Devi gave birth to a boy baby on the tenth day of the Krishna Paksham (waning moon) of the Paush month. When the child was in the Queen’s womb, she saw a serpent gliding on the bed close to the flank of the King. She woke the king and saved him from danger. Since the blessed soul saved the king from risk, the king named the baby as Parshva which means flank.
As the time passed by the child grew as a Prince. He was pious and at the same time intelligent. King Prasenjit of Kushasthalpur wanted to marry his daughter Prabhavati to Prince Parsh. But King of Kalinga Yavanraj conquered Kushasthalpur and expressed his interest in marrying Prabhavati. King Prasenjit did not want his daughter to marry him and hence sought help from King Ashwasena. He sent his son Parshvanath to the battle. Getting to know the power of Prince Parshvanath King Yavanraj ask for pardon and called off the war. After this event Parshvanath married Prabhavati. He lived a simple life.
Parshvanath – Ascetic Life
After Parshvanath father left the kingdom to his son, and the King practised spiritual penance in the forest. King Parshvanath ruled the kingdom, and all his subjects were happy. Once he heard about a beggar Kamath, who was performing some penance named Panchagni (five fire penance). King himself went there to see the ceremony. Logs of woods were burning all around the mendicant. King Parshvanath noticed two serpents were caught inside the fire and suffering for life. When Parsh told that to the mendicant, he did not bother to listen, and he did not know that Parsh was the king. Finally to save the serpents king ordered his soldiers to move the logs and rescue the snakes. Parsh spoke to the serpents which were struggling for life and asked them not to curse the mendicant. Having followed Parsh advised the serpents were reincarnated as the king and queen of Nag Kumar family in their next birth.
This incident made Parshvanath realize his past, present, and future. He understood that Kamath was always trying to kill him all his previous births. Thus Parshvanath wanted to enlighten people in the path of righteousness. He decided to embrace ascetic life and left the kingdom.
He practised holy penance under the Dharanendra tree and attained omniscience. He achieved omniscience on the fourth day of the waning moon of the Chaitra month in Varanasi at a garden called as Ashrampad.
Nirvana
He preached the tenets of Jain philosophy to his followers; He gave many discourses about eternal cycles of birth and death. He helped many to attain salvation.
His first eight followers were called as Ganadharas. Shubhdatta was the first disciple. Parshvanath preached comprehensively, and that made the Magadha and the Shakya Kings his disciples.
After fasting for many days, Parshvanath achieved Nirvana on the fifth day of the waxing moon during the Shravan month at Sammet Shikhar Ji located in Jharkhand.
Temples Built for Bhagavan Parshvanath in India
- Godiji Parshvanath temple built in – Andrapradesh (Chitradurga, Guntur, and Hyderabad). Maharashtra (Pune and Mumbai) and in Gujarat (Ahmedabad).
- Maharashtra – Akola – Shirpur – Antariksh Parshvanath temple
- Rajasthan – Nakoda – Parshvanath temple
- Uttar Pradesh – Rampur – Ahichchatra Parshvanath Atishaya Teerth Kshetra Digambar Jain Mandir
- Madhya Pradesh – Khajuraho – Parshvanath Jain temple
- Gujarat – Patan – Shankeshwar Parshvanath Jain temple
- Rajasthan – Jodhpur – Ostra Parshvanath Jain temple
Conclusion
Bhagavan Parshvanath’s symbol is a serpent. Bhagavan Parshvanath sermonized the central beliefs of ahimsa and kindness.
Bhagavan Parshvanath was a blessed soul born to uplift mankind to attain liberation. Lord Mahavira came 250 years after Bhagavan Parshvanath.
| Father: | Asvasena |
|---|---|
| Mother: | Vamadevi |
| Dynasty: | Ikshvaku |
| Birth: | Kashi (Banaras) |
| Nirvana: | Sammed Shikhar |
| Colour: | Blue |
| Symbol: | Snake  |
| Height: | 9 hands or cubits |
| Age: | 100 years |
| Yaksha: | Vaman , Dharanendra,Parshwa Yaksh dev |
| Yaksini: | Padmavati |
