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Munisuvrat Swami is our Twentieth Tirthankar of present life cycle Avasarpini. All the Tirthankars were highly realised souls spiritually evolving through a number of births. Munisuvrata in his earlier life was said to be the King of Champa city in Mahavideha region named Surshreshta. He led a very pious life and later on took up ascetism. He underwent rigorous penances and reached a highly exalted state due to which he reincarnated in the Pranat dimension of Gods and later his soul descended into the womb of Queen Padmavati who was the wife of King Sumitra Raja of Rajgriha kingdom. The Queen witnessed fourteen dreams which are the signs of the advent of the birth of a Tirthankar and were dreamt by every Tirthanakar's mother.
Both the King and Queen were overjoyed at their good fortune of being the parents of the nexrt Tirthankar. She gave birth to a son on the tenth day of Krishna Paksh of the month of Vaisakha according to the Jain calendar. The Queen during the pregnancy took a number of vows and led a life filled with discipline just like an ascetic. Hence the child was named Munisuvrata(vow like ascetic). Soon he grew up and later on they got him married. The King then announed him as the next king and handed over the kingdom to him and went to the forest to pursue the spiritual path.
Munisuvrata ruled wisely for many years. In his kingdom all were happy and peace was spread. Then thinking about the everchanging seasons and the monotony of life a deep sense of detachment came over him. One day in his meditation he saw in his meditation all his past lives and realised the goal of his life and the purpose of his existence. He then gave up everything and embraced ascetism. He wandered about engaged in rigorous spiritual penances and under a Champa tree, he achieved Omniscience.
He preached about Sprituall and Applied philosophy and exhorted his followers to realise the reason of their birth and their goal of self realisation. He asked them to give up worldly bondage and transcend the cycles of birth and death. He explained the principles of Right Conduct, Right thinking and Right knowledge and urged them to practice compassion and non violence. He attained Nirvana at Sammed Shikhar on the ninth day of the month of Jyeshta. He is associated with tortoise emblem.
