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Kunthunath Swami is our Seventeenth Tirthanakar of present life cycle Avsarpini. Kunthunath in his earlier life was King Simhavaha of Khadgi town in Mahavideha region. He was highly religious and God loving. After some time he gave up his kingdom and took Diksha from Samvar Acharya. He had been undergoing rigorous spiritual penances over several lifetimes and had reached a very exalted state of enlightenment due to which he was reborn as the seventeenth Tirthankar. He reincarnated in the Sarvarthasiddha dimension of the Gods and then his soul descended into the womb of Queen Shri Devi who was the wife of King Shursen of Hastinapur kingdom. The Queen dreamt fourteen auspicious things which were dreamed by every Tirthankar's mother.
When she informed the King, he recognised the signs of a Tirthankar and informed her and both of them were very happy that they were blessed to be the parents of the next Tirthankar. Soon time passed and the Queen was blessed with a son on the fourteenth day of Krishna Paksh of the month of Vaisakh of the Jain calendar. As the Queen had dreamt of a heap of gemstones known as Kunthu during her pregnancy the child was named Kunthunath. He soon grew up and they made him married. The King then handed over the kingdom to him and went to the forest for spiritual practices. Soon the disc weapon ’Chakra’ appeared in his armoury and he proceeded to conquer the Kingdoms with his mighty army. All the Kings accepted his sovereignty avoiding any confrontation and without any bloodshed Kuntunath became a Chakravarthi. He returned to his kingdom and to celebrate the joyous event he excused all taxes of his people and took great care of them. Peace and joy reigned everywhere. Time passed by and soon the King began to get restless and wasn't happy with any matherialistic stuff.
One dayt, in his prayers he witnessed his past lives and realised the reason for his this birth and the goal of his life. He decided to become an ascetic and many of the Kings who were loyal to him also followed him. He continued his spiritual penances and achieved Omniscience on the third day of the bright half of the month of Chaitra under a Tilak tree in Sahasramara jungle outside Hastinapur region.
He then began teaching on inner purity, passions and methods to conquer it, principles of Right Conduct, Right Living and Right Action. He wandered from place to place and at Sammed Shikhar he attained Nirvana after many years of rigorous spiritual penances and preaching. Kunthunath is associated with Goat symbol.
