Parsva
The twenty-third Jaina tirthankara, Parsva, or Parsvanatha, is reputed to have lived in the eighth century BC, some 84,000 years after the death of his saintly predecessor, Neminatha. According to legend, he dwelt on earth for a century, having quit his family at the age of thirty to become an ascetic. Parsva was an incarnation of Indra, a handsome and noble man whose relations accepted only as a last resort his determination to take the vow of world-renunciation known as sannyasa. His father. King Asvasena of Benares, had been informed through the pre-natal dreams of his queen that their son would be either a world monarch or a world-saviour.
The encounter between the eight-year-old Parsva and his maternal grandfather Mahipala appears to have been something of a turning point in his development. Parsva was riding an elephant in the jungle when he chanced upon Mahipala, an ascetic since the death of Parsva's grand-mother over a decade before. The old hermit was beside himself with anger: had he not once been a king, had he not been disturbed in the midst of the severest penances, and had he not received from the young prince an improper salutation! Seizing an axe, he was about to split a log into two pieces, when Parsva told him that he would kill two serpents within the wood. ‘And who are you? Brahma? Vishnu? Shiva? I perceive that you can see everything, no matter where,’ said Mahipala scornfully. Then he swung the axe, and did slice in half the serpents hidden inside. Grudgingly the recluse acknowledged his grandson's rank as a great sage, especially when the hymn-singing of Parsva was sufficient to ensure the reincarnation of the dying snakes as Ananta, the cosmic serpent, and Lakshmi, the spouse of Vishnu.
Tired of the imperfections of existence, Parsva turned to meditation, increasing so rapidly in his awareness that the gods in the heavens trembled, then descended as a host to beseech him to open the road to bliss for all living creatures. He divested himself of all attire, the last vestiges of earthly longing, and stood in a rigid posture, fasting without break, till he attained the supreme consciousness. Nothing could distract him, except the earnest prayers of the gods and his chief disciple, Svayambhu, who successfully requested that Parsva teach the way of escape from eternal rebirth.
