The Third-last Birth as King Purushasimha and Second-last Birth in the Heaven
There was a King named Vijayasen in the Shankhpur town of the Puskalavati Vijay (region) in Purva Mahavideh Kshetra of Jambudweep. His wife was Sudarshana. The King ruled the kingdom well and the Queen, too, was of a good nature.
Once, Sudarshana was taking a round in the city on an elephant. In a garden, she saw a beautiful lady who, too, was seated on an elephant. Not only that, there were eight young, beautiful and well-dressed ladies serving this lady on the elephant. Upon seeing this, Sudarshana was curious to know who this lucky lady was. So, she asked her maid to enquire about that lady.
Later, she got to know from the maid that the lady's name was Sulakshana and she was the wife of a merchant named Nandisen. She had eight daughters-in-law who served her, day and night.
Sudarshana did not have any child. After seeing Sulakshana, she felt sad and thought that it was not worthy to live a life without children. She then shared her feelings with her husband. Upon hearing this, the husband decided to worship their deity, without having food or water. On the sixth day of his fast, the deity blessed him and told that he would have a son.
Sudarshana got pregnant and that night, in a dream, she saw a lion entering her mouth. She described this dream to her husband, who in turn, called for the experts’ view to know what this meant. The King was conveyed that the Queen will give birth to a bright and powerful son. Therefore, the parents decided to name their son as Purushasimha.
When Purushasimha grew young, he was married to eight princesses. After a few years, he felt like taking Diksha. He went to the Saint from whom he intended to take Diksha and asked him what was the way to get away from the sexual pleasures.
The saint gave him a good understanding about the same. He said that one cannot achieve liberation if there are sexual desires. However, brahmacharya is not to be observed only physically. Only when brahmacharya is followed through mind, speech and body, when not a single thought arises in the mind and the consciousness, too, is absolutely clear of sexual desires, it is called ideal brahmacharya.
Accordingly, Purushasimha started following the principle of celibacy. He became detached and started living a life of an ascetic. As a result of vigorous penance and higher spiritual practices, he earned the Tirthankara-naam-and-gotra-karma. Completing his age, he reincarnated as a celestial being in Vijayant (one of the upper world areas) in his next birth.