Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/60

 all his property, which can only have been the ordinary possessions of the cadet of a small House, but which the love of his followers has exaggerated into the wealth of a mighty emperor. Then, followed by a train of gods and men, he was carried in a palanquin to the park and, alighting, took his seat on a five-tiered throne, which was so placed as to face the east. There he stripped himself of all his ornaments and finery, flinging them to the attendant god Vaiśramaṇa, who caught them up as they fell.

Most Hindu mendicants cut or shave off their hair, but a peculiar and most painful custom of the Jaina is that all ascetics, as a proof of their power of endurance, must tear out their hair by the roots. One Jaina writer declares in his English ‘Life of Mahāvīra’ that ‘only those can do it who have no love with their flesh and bones’. It is looked on as a sign that henceforth the monk or nun will take no thought for the body.

As Mahāvīra performed this crowning act of austerity, Indra, the leader and king of the gods, falling down before the feet of the venerable ascetic, caught up the hairs in a diamond cup and took them to the Ocean of Milk. The saint then did obeisance to all liberated spirits, and vowing to do no sinful act, adopted the holy conduct.

The Jaina mark with great precision the five degrees of knowledge that lead to Omniscience. Mahāvīra, they say, was born with the first three,, ,