Shree PadamPrabhu Swami 6th Jain Tirthankar

Shree PadamPrabhu Swami
6th Jain Tirthankar

A person not only gets liberation and enlightenment from the worldly life but also helps others achieve the same. Such a blessed soul becomes a Tirthankara. Tirthankara comes to this world as a human being born as an ordinary individual. Due to the positive karma accumulated by them in their previous births they become Tirthankara. Those who help others to cross the ocean of worldly life are called as ford makers. Tirthankara is called as ford makers. Ford means Tirtha.

Jain philosophy believes that the cosmic cycle has no beginning and end. The Kalachakra is a wheel with twelve spokes and keeps moving continually. The time cycle gets divided into two, namely the successive cycle or Utsarpini and the reverse cycle or Avsarpini. As the name indicates, things progress during Utsarpini phase and deteriorate during Avsarpini. During Utsarpini phase health, ethics, age, wealth, religious embracement, etc. grows among people. But the reverse happens during Avsarpini. Yes, all starts happening from best to worst.

These two phases get further divided into six different periods each and called as Aras. Both Utsarpini and Avsarpini have Six Aras. They follow in a cycle one after the other. Presently it is said by Jainism that the fifth Ara of Avsarpini is going on. Roughly after 19000 years, the sixth Ara will commence. After 21000 years of the sixth Ara, the first Ara of Utsarpini will begin. Every half cycle of the Ara will have set of 24 Tirthankaras. The set of 24 will repeat, and this process becomes endless.

Birth and childhood Padmaprabha

Before getting liberated as Padmaprabha the sixth Tirthankara of Jainism, he was born as King Aparajit. He governed the kingdom of the Susima town located in the area called as Purva Videha. He lived a humble life. He loved to have peace and serenity. He was a religious and peace loving person.

One day he happened to listen to a speech of an Arihant Acharya Pihitashrava. He got influenced by his talk and started getting detached from the material comforts. He regularly listened to his discourses. He felt very light and free from all pain. He then held on to the spiritual practice. His firm practice helped him to connect with God. He obtained Diksha from Acharya Pihitashrava.

Due to the Tirthankar Nam Karma, his soul entered into the womb of Queen Sushima. Kaushambi King Dharanand Queen Sushima felt very happy about parenting a Tirthankara. All through her maternity period, the Queen was attracted towards Lotus flowers. She wanted to sleep on the Lotus bed. To make her wish come true God made a lotus bed arrangement to her. Yes, the soul in the womb got all such credits from God.

On the twelfth day of the waning moon of the Kartik month, Queen delivered a boy baby. The baby looked pink and bright as a lotus. The king decided to name the baby Padmaprabh since he understood that the blessed soul made the mother sleep in lotus bed while inside her womb.

Time passed by and the baby grew into a royal prince learning all about life. He always wanted peace and simplicity. He was married to the princess. One day his father and King Dharanand announced that Padmaprabha would rule the kingdom. King and the Queen wished to live in the forest and practice rigorous spiritual penance and attain Mukti. But Padmaprabha stood up and told that he has the least interest in living a luxurious life. Hence he said the kingdom would provide luxury to all the subjects. He will take care of the country to obey his father. People felt so proud of Padmaprabha. He ruled the country along with all the people and gave all wealth to people. All his subjects felt very happy living in his kingdom. He lived a pious life. He always meditated and practiced penance. The day he saw his previous births in his meditation he understood his very purpose of existence. He decided to leave the kingdom and go into the jungle for meditating. He handed over the responsibility to his people.

Padmaprabha – Ascetic Life

Then on the next day morning, he went under a tree and stood there. He resolutely decided to remove all his attachments from the life. Later he removed all his attachment towards the material life. He removed hair with his fist and said ‘Namo Sidhanam.’ He started moving forward destroying all his Karmas and became ascetic.

He continued to sit under the banyan tree and meditated with all his devotion to God. Upon continuous practice of penance for six months he achieved his goal. Yes, on the full moon day of the Chaitra month, he attained Omniscience.

Nirvana

He began his journey of preaching all individuals the purpose of life. He taught them the right karmas. He told them the value of nonviolence. He started spreading the Jain philosophy namely the Right Act, Right Manner and Right Knowledge. Many people followed him and the path of renunciation. They realized the way to attain liberation from the samsara Bandhan.

After consistently helping people for many years to attain liberation from the worldly life he attained Mukti. On the eleventh day of the waning moon of the Margashirsh month, he achieved Nirvana.

Conclusion

Yes, the blessed soul Bhagavan Padmaprabha gave many discourses with love, care, and concern. He taught them the real purpose of birth. He insisted them to get detached from material comforts and practice penance. The only way to attain salvation from the infinite birth and death cycle is detachment.

Detachment does not only mean leaving material comfort but to stay away from emotional attachment. One must not worry and think about life can help him to achieve peace. Peace leads to reach the eternal blissful state.

Tirthankara’s like Padmaprabha has won their internal enemies and attained Nirvana. Their preaching allows every individual to achieve freedom from all their battle with their ego, greed, pride, and jealousy. Thus the sixth Tirthankara was followed by much more Tirthankaras to help people attain salvation

Family
Father:	Sidhara (Dharana)
Mother:	Susima
Dynasty:	Ikshvaku
Places
Birth:	Kausambi
Nirvana:	Sammed Shikhar
Attributes
Colour:	Red
Symbol:	Lotus
Height:	250 dhanusha (750 meters)
Age:	3,000,000 purva (211.68 Quintillion Years)
Attendant Gods
Yaksha:	Kusum
Yaksini:	Achyuta