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Our Fifth Tirthankar is Sumatinath Swami. Sumatinath in his earlier life was Purushasimha, son of King Vijayasen, king of Shankhpur town in Purva Mahavideha. One day as he was walking in his garden, he came across Acharya Vinayanandan Dev teaching his followers. Hearing the teachings of Acharya, he realised the purpose of his life and set his goal accordingly. He left his palace and performed rigorous spiritual practices. He had already attained a very high level of spiritual enlightenment. Hence his soul took birth as Tirthankar in his next life. His soul took place in the womb of Queen Sumangala/Manglavati who was wife of King Meghrath of Ayodhya. There was joy spread all around in the kingdom and everyone was happy listening about this news. Mata Sumangala recevied all 14 auspecious dreams which every Tirthankar's mother use to have.
One day in the kingdom, a small boy and two women approached the King’s court for the justice. One of them informed the King that both of them were wives of a rich merchant who recently passed away, leaving behind the son and a lot of wealth. Both the women claimed that the boy was their son. They both started fighting and aruging. The small boy was feeling helpless as he loved both the women equally. It became difficult for king as their was no eye witness at the time of the birth of the boy as he was borned in a remote place. King was worried and confused with this case and was feeling helpless as none of the ministers were able to help him. Like this the whole day passed away and at night he mentioned the whole incident to the Queen, she smiled and said she would solve it as she knew that king don't want to take a wrong decision or let anyone suffer due to his decision. Next morning she entered the court and had words with the women, no one was ready to understand and still claiming that they were the mother of the son. The Queen then stated that since she carried a soul in her womb, the decision would be taken after the birth of her child. In the meantime the son and the property would be taken into custody by the kingdom and the claimants would have to wait for such a long period of time. After hearing this one of the women readily accepted the decision but the other woman began to cry and stated that she could not bear to get parted from her son for such a long period. She said that she is ready to withdraw the claim and her son and the property should be handed over to the other woman and requested that she would be satisfied if she would be allowed to meet the child often. Then the Queen recognised the concern and pain of a mother and she immediately declared the other woman as the imposter and said she would be sentenced to death for her being guilty and the woman who was real mother will be handed the child and wealth with all honour. Everyone present there in the Kingdom was impressed by the judgement which Queen had taken. The imposter pleaded guilty and begged for her pardon and the Queen allowed her to be pardoned.
The Queen soon gave birth to a son on the eighth day of the bright half of the month of Vaisakh (according to Jain Calender). There was peace, harmony and love spread everywhere. The King realised that it was the influence of the auspecious soul in the womb that led to the Queen’s wisdom and wise judgement making power.They named him as Sumati(meaning right decision and wise). Time passed and Sumati became younger and reached the age of marriage and his parents made him married and he had many princesses whom he got married to. As time passed King decided to leave his kingdom and throne and hand it to Sumati, he declared him King and left for forest for meditation.
After his father,Sumatinath ruled the kingdom for a long period with peace and harmony and later he had a sense of detachment due to which he renounced the Kingship and went further for ascetism. He then continued rigorous meditation for several years and on eleventh day of the bright half of the month of Chaitra(according to Jain Calendar) he finally attained omniscience under a Priyangu tree. He then realised the existence of human life and started spreading Jainism all around. And on the ninth day of the bright half of the month of Chaitra(according to Jain Calender) he attained Nirvana at the auspecious land of Sammed Shikar.
Bhagawan Sumatinathji was born to stop struggling of mankind from bondage and the cycle of births and deaths. With infinite compassion and love he encouraged people to strive for liberation which was the goal of all human life and free themselves from desires and attachment which bound the soul to the earthly plane. He taught the Jain philosophy of Right action, Right Conduct and Right Knowledge and with such determination that people accepted his teachings and followed the path which he showed. Sumatinath is associated with Goose emblem.
