The
concept of Samosaran – just like Tirthankar-nam-karan –
is only available in Jainism and not in any other
religion.
The creation of samosaran
is done by four kinds of Dev (Gods) when a Tirthankar
attains Keval Gyan (Complete knowledge). The
shape of samosaran is either round or even square. It is
of about 8 miles i.e. approx. of 1 yojan. This immensely
beautiful development is done so that all and sundry on
Earth, sky, water can hear the Tirthankar’s speech when
they attain keval gyan.
Description of samosaran
First Gad (first floor)
The God of wind clears the
ground from all the stones, pebbles, thorns, etc.,
vaiyantra dev make a platform of samosaran out of gold
and jewels. Out of the three floors (gad) of Samosaran
the first one is prepared by bhuvan pati devta. They
prepare it by silver and decorate the borders by gold.
To reach this floor there are 10,000 steps from the
ground in each four directions. Each step is
approximately one hand in width and one hand in height.
And here humans and gods who come to hear the
Tirthankara keep their vehicles.
Each of the four
directions have a door and two gate-mans (dwarpals) are
at each door. At one side of these door there is a pond
of water. That means, in total , there are four doors in
four direction, eight dwarpals – two at each door,
40,000 steps and in the first floor of the samosaran.
Second Gad (second
floor)
This floor is made by
jyotish devta (God of Astrology). This floor is made up
of gold and borders are decorated with jewels. To reach
this floor there are 5,000 steps each in four directions
and just similar to the first step, it has four doors
and a pond of water. At the doors of this floor there
are goddesses in place of dwarpals at each door. In four
corners of this floor there are speacial arrangement and
seats (sinhasan) for the Gods to be seated. In this
floor birds and animals all sit together forgetting
about their enmity. Cat and rat, lion and goat all sit
together and go spellbound by the words of the lord.
Such is the specialty of this floor.
Third Gad (third floor)
The third floor is
prepared by vaiyamanik devta. They prepare this floor
with jewels and decorate its borders with Mani. To reach
this floor there are 5,000 steps each in four directions
and just similar to the first step, it has four doors
and a pond of water. At the
Doors devtas (Gods) stand
in the form of gate-mans. At this part vayantar devta
prepare a throne of jewels along with a mat to keep
feet’s. Tirthankar himself come and sit on the throne
facing East. As soon Lord takes his place three
look-alikes of him automatically take their position in
the other three directions. These are basically the
idols of his which are created so that everybody feels
that they visualizing the ultimate knowledge. At this
floor Gods who prepare the sabha, goddesses, sadhu,
sadhvi’s shravik and shraviks’ take their place.
The tree under which
Tirthankara sit is Ashok Tree, which is about twelve
times higher than the height of The Tirthankars. By the
sides of the lord are one – one server carrying a fan
made up of cotton threads (Chamar). On top of the head
of lord are three inverted umbrellas (chatars). There is
enlightened glow on the head of the Lord. He enters from
the East and takes tree rounds of the tree and after
saying ‘namo tithas’ takes his seat to the throne.
Lords gives his valuable
words twice in a day and each session is 3 hours long.
His words are in prakrit language (very old Indian form
of dialect). But such is the effect of his words that
each and everybody understands it in his or her own
language.
This is how a samosaran is
created. It is no doubt no more formed because there is
no Tirthankara in this part of kal chakra – this Ara.
But it is still formed in Mahavidya Kshetra – where 20
tirthankaras always remain. One can find a look alike of
samosaran in every Jain Mandir made up of silver and
being worshiped by the followers of the religion.
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