Twelfth year of the master's penances records an
incident which shows that even a great soul like that of Mahavira had to
bear the fruits of his Karmas (actions). While depicting the life of
Mahavira the Jaina scriptures do not begin with the birth of last as
Vardhamana. They begin with several lives which his soul had to live
before the last birth. This stands to reason because Jaina philosophers,
like all Indian philosophers, do not subscribe to the view that the
history of soul's journey begins with the present life only. According to
them, present life is but a step in the long journey which extends from
one life to the other till one gets salvation.
In one of his lives as a king fond of music, he had
ordered one of his attendants to stop the music after he went to sleep.
The attendant however, liked to hear the music and so did not stop the
same as directed. When the king that his order was flouted, he ordered to
punish the attendant by pouring boiling lead in his ears. Mahavira's soul
had to pay for this cruelty in the twelfth year of his ascetic life when
he visited �Chammanigama'. There it happened that while he was in
meditation, a cowherd inquired from him the whereabouts of his bullocks,
grazing in the vicinity. He, however, did not get any reply from the
meditating Yogi. Enraged by this act Yogi of the cowherd punished the
master by inserting pointed nails in his ears. The pain of this punishment
was so severe that a doctor, at the town Apapa where the master had gone
on a visit, believed from his face to be suffering from some painful
disease. Later on the doctor knowing the real cause of the pain, took out
the nails when, as the story runs, even Mahavira gave a shriek of pain. By
observing voluntarily, very severe penances for a long period of twelve
years, Mahavira had practically completed the process of Nirjara (shedding
of accumulated karmas). However, the karma of putting boiling lead in the
ears of a helpless attendant for a minor breach was of the type, which
could not be shed by voluntary penances (known as Sakama Nirjara). Fruits
of that karma were bound to be enjoyed and Mahavira's soul was no
exception to this rule. The theory of karma as understood by Jaina
thinkers classify the Karmas of different categories. One category is of
the karmas, the result of which can not be avoided by Sakama Nirjara even
by practicing penances. Such results have to be suffered with equanimity,
patience and fortitude so that while suffering the same new karmas are not
earned.
Mahavira's soul had now become free from the burden of
past karmas. He had already ceased to earn fresh karmas as the process of
�Samvara' was already over when he took to the life of an ascetic at the
age of 30 years.
