Previous Lives
In the Aparvideh area there was a city named Vitshoka. It was ruled by a powerful king Mahabal. He was very intimate with six other kings who were his childhood friends. Influenced by discourses of ascetics, king Mahabal decided to follow the spiritual path. he sought opinion of his six childhood friends with the remark, "I want to became an ascetic, do you also?"
All the six friends replied, "We have been together during both good and bad times. When we have been together during both good and bad times. When we have enjoyed the mundane life in company, it would be shameful if we part company on the spiritual path. We shall become ascetics together and we shall do all spiritual practices together."
The seven kings took Diksha from Varadharma Muni and started the spiritual practices earnestly. Mahabala was bitten by the bug of ego. He thought, "I have always been ahead of my friends. Now, if I do the same practices I will remain at the same level. As such I should do a little more and be ahead as before." With this feeling, Mahabala started secretly doing more practices than the others. All the seven friends would formally take vow of some specific penance together but when on conclusion, other friends broke their fast, Mahabala would continue his fast on some pretext. The desire to be above the ordinary inspired this competition. As a result of this deception Mahabala fell from the lofty spiritual level he had attained due to his intense practices and acquired the Karma that would result in being born as a woman (striveda). However, as he still maintained the purity and intensity in his practices he later also earned the Tirthankara-nam-and-gotra-karma. All the seven ascetics breathed their last after sixty days fast and mediation. They reincarnated as gods in the Anuttara dimension.
Read more about this topic: Mallinath
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