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CHAPTER THREE
long time. Enjoying repeatedly the nectar of happiness delightful with all objects produced by (mere) desire, without any obstacles, they do not know that the birth has passed. Falling from heaven at the termination of divine delights, they descend to earth with the best body. Born in a divine family they enjoy manifold pleasures charming with constant festivals, their desires unbroken. Then, resorting to discernment, having attained disgust with all pleasures, their karma destroyed by meditation, they attain the state from which there is no return (emancipation).”
Founding of the tīrtha (811-841) Such a sermon was delivered by the Tirthanātha benefiting all men, the moon for the delight of the nightblooming lotus of the Three Worlds. After hearing the Lord's sermon, enlightened men and women took initiation, the sole mother of emancipation, by the thousands. At that time Sumitra, the father of Cakrin Sagara, who had been an ascetic in spirit before, took initiation under the Master.
Then the Lord told the 'three steps, consisting of origination, perishing, and permanence, resembling a condensation 269 of the grammar of all the scriptures, to the ninety-five wise ascetics, Sinhasena and others, who had the nāmakarma of gaṇabhrts. In conformity with the 'three steps' they made the twelve Angas with the Purvas, like a picture in conformity with a line. Then Vāsava got up, brought a dish filled with powdered sandal, and stood, surrounded by a throng of gods, at the Master's lotusfeet. Then the Lord of the World rose and, throwing the powder on the heads of the gaṇabhịts in turn, he himself gave permission for exposition by text and interpretation and by both, by substances, qualities, modifications, 270
200 815. Pratyāhāra, a grammatical term. 270 819. See I, n. 272.
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