Shri Shreyansnath: life and stories
Following the Shwetambar tradition, chiefly Acharya Shri Hemchandracharya's Trishashti Shalaka Purush Charitra and the Kalpasutra. Kalyanak tithis are in Gujarati months.
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In a former life he was a king in Mahavideh who took diksha and, through the aradhana of the twenty sthanak, bound the Tirthankar naam karma; he was then born as a dev in the higher devlok.
On Vaishakh Vad 6 his soul came into the womb of Queen Vishnu, wife of King Vishnu of Sinhapuri, and she saw the fourteen great dreams.
Shreyans means "the most auspicious". The tradition says that the birth of the Prabhu brought welfare (shreya) to the whole kingdom. His chinh is the rhinoceros.
He was born on Maha Vad 12, and the Indras celebrated the janmabhishek on Meru.
After the Lokantik devs came to request him and a year of varshidaan, he took diksha on Maha Vad 13 with a thousand kings.
He attained kevalgyan on Posh Vad Amas; the devs built the samavasaran and the fourfold sangh was set up.
On Ashadh Vad 3 Shri Shreyansnath attained nirvan on Sammet Shikhar.
In his time lived the first Vasudev, Triprishta, the soul that would one day be Mahavir Swami.