Shree Suvidhi Nath/Pushpadant 9th Jain Thithankar

Shree Suvidhi Nath/Pushpadant

9th Jain Tirthankar

Tirthankaras are incarnated as a human being and win over all karmic bonds to attain Mukti. They help every individual to realize the purpose of life. They are called as ford makers. Tirthankaras help people to cross the sea of samsara bondage. Tirthankaras are also called as Jina. Jina means conqueror of material existence using their spiritual power. Tirthankaras reach the state of bliss by destroying all the internal enemies including greed, lust, ego, deceit, and pride.

Jain philosophy believes that the Time Cycle or Kalachakra gets divided as Avsarpini kaal and Utsarpini Kaal. The duration of each kaal makes Ten krodakrodi saagaropam. Crore power two makes krodakrodi. Ten krodakrodi multiplied by palyopam makes one saagaropam. Palyopam cannot be quantified. Each Kaal further gets divided into six Aras.

Know the duration of Awasarpini kaal

First Ara – Four KS
Second Ara – Three KS
Third Ara – Two KS
Fourth Ara – 42000 years less than 1 KS
Fifth Ara – 21000 years
Sixth Ara – 21000 years

KS stands for – Krodakrodi Saagaropam. In Utsarpini kaal, there occurs a reversal in the number of years.

Per Jain cosmic cycle presently fifth Ara of Avsarpini is going on. Once 21000 years get over, the sixth Ara will begin. Between every half cycle set of 24 Tirthankaras will come into the earth.

Birth and Childhood of Pushpadanta

Pushpadanta was born as King Mahapadma in his previous birth of the Pushkalvati Vijay town. He lived a pious life and attained Diksha to come to the world as a Tirthankara during his next incarnation.

Due to the Tirthankara Nam Karma, his soul descended into the womb of Queen Rama Devi to come as the next Tirthankara. King Sugriv was bravely ruling Kakandi town. One day in the morning when King Sugriv was starting for ‘Guruvandana,’ he wanted to talk to his wife and hence called her. When Queen Ramadevi came, he noticed her that she looked exhausted. The king asked her the reason, and the Queen told that she had seen an unusual dream in the early morning. She also added that she could not come off the dream and it was a chain of fourteen things that came in her dream. All fourteen things looked so beautiful that she could feel the glow from inside. (Digambar sect of Jainism believes that there are sixteen things in such dreams). King wanted to meet their Muni Shri Shantipriya. Both went and explained about the dream and the Muniji confirmed the birth of a Tirthankara to them. Both King and Queen could not express their joy. They thankfully left that place. In the celebration of the new arrival, they started praying God most of the time.

On the fifth day Krishna Paksham (Full moon to New moon) of the Margshirsha month a boy baby was born to the Queen Rama Devi.

It was observed that all through the pregnancy the Queen performed the entire task including the most difficult ones with great ease. She followed the process with utmost care. Everyone was surprised to see this act of the Queen. Also, their Kulaguru Shri Yashobhadra visited them to bless the child. He confirmed that the Queen attained such a professional quality due to the influence of the child in the womb. Hence they named the baby as Suvidhinath. Suvidhi means correct process. The Queen had a craving for flowers when the baby was developing tooth, and hence he was also called as Pushpadanta. Pushpadanta means flower-tooth.

Days passed by and the child Pushpadanta grew up as a wise and humble man. He got married. He started devoting his time in meditation. During this period King Sugriv wanted to follow the path of renunciation. He called upon Pushpadanta and crowned the kingship. King Sugriv then left to the jungles and practiced asceticism. King Pushpadanta began to rule the kingdom with humbleness and carried out his duties very meticulously.

Pushpadanta – Ascetic Life

One day Pushpadanta felt very unhappy about the cycle of birth and death. He was deeply thinking about life and realized the purpose of his existence. He was able to see his previous births and decided to attain Nirvana. He felt detached and left the kingdom handing over all his responsibility. He recited Namo Siddhanam and vanished into the crowd. Then he practiced spiritual penance under the maloor tree.

Many hurdles approached him. Wild animals tried attacking him. Women tried alluring him with their beauty. But nothing could shake his devotion to God. On the sixth day of the waning moon, he attained omniscience and began his ascetic journey.

Nirvana

He then consistently preached his followers the Jain philosophy. He exhorted people to follow the Right Action, Right Conduct, and Right Living. He explained people the purpose behind birth and rebirth. He taught those ways to attain salvation. He practiced ahimsa and compassion. He helped his followers to practice the same.

Suvidhinath is popularly known as ‘Arihant Suvidhinath Bhagwan. ‘During his first Samavsharan, Mahapandit Varah came and enquired Arihant Prabhu. Suvidhinath gave answers to the questions. Varah realized the power of Suvidhinath and took Diksha from him. During his pravachan on the ninth day of the Krishna Paksham of the Kartik month, Suvidhinath attained Nirvana. He gave up all his karmas and got liberated at Sammed Shikharji hill.

Conclusion

Crocodile is the symbol that represented Suvidhinath. Blessed Great souls like Bhagavan Suvidhinath came to the world to help people overcome all their struggles from the worldly life. They helped people to cross the sea of birth and death cycle and provided them a way to attain Mukti from the mundane life.

Slowly after many years of liberation of Bhagavan Suvidhinath, the ascetic principles initiated by the first Tirthankara Bhagavan Rishabha started disintegrating. People forgot the moral values of life and began to search for carnal pleasure.

But soon the prevalence of the next Tirthankara brought things under control. India is such a blessed country to have many realized souls. They repeatedly help individual to understand oneself and pave the way for peace.

Family
Father:	Sugriva
Mother:	Rama (Supriya)
Dynasty:	Ikshvaku
Places
Birth:	Kakandi
Nirvana:	Sammed Shikhar
Attributes
Colour:	White
Symbol:	Crocodile
Height:	100 dhanusha (300 meters)
Age:	200,000 purva (14.11 Quintillion Years)
Attendant Gods
Yaksha:	Vjit
Yaksini:	Sutara