Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

SR No.: 001006
Original Sutra Author: Hemchandracharya
Author: Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
Publication Year: 1962
Total Pages: 446
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Mythology, Story, N000, & N010
File Size: 21 MB

Page 62

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CHAPTER ONE house of impurity, filled with fat, blood, flesh, bone, liver, excrement and urine ? This body, even when it is cherished and cared for, is perishable and must soon be given up like a house taken for rent. Surely the body, whether brave or cowardly, must die. Therefore, the wise man should die in such a way that he would not die again.
The Arhats are my refuge; the Siddhas and sādhus are my refuge. The dharma taught by the omniscients is my refuge above all.52 The Jina's dharma is my mother; my guru is my father; the sādhus are full brothers; co-religionists are relatives. Other things are like snares.
I pay homage to all the Tirthakaras, Rşabha and the others; I bow to the Arhats of Bharata, Airāvata, and Videha.53 The formula of homage to the Tirthakşts is being made for the destruction of birth of corporeal beings, and especially for the acquisition of enlightenment. I pronounce the formula of homage to the blessed Siddhas by whom the fuel of karma produced by a thousand births was burned by the fire of meditation. Homage, homage to the ācāryas with the fivefold practices54 who, always zealous for the destruction of birth, maintain knowledge of the scriptures. Who possess all the sacred knowledge and teach it to disciples, homage especially to them, noble teachers (upādhyāya). Homage, homage to the sādhus possessing the disciplinary vows,55 who destroy evil attached to a thousand births.
I renounce censurable activity and also attachment to worldly objects inner and outer, so long as I live, threefold in three ways. I give up the four kinds of food so long as I live and I renounce the body, too, in the last breath.”
After he had so made the censure of evil acts, the asking
52 256. See the Prakīrņaka Catuhšarana. 53 258. The only zones in which Tirthankaras exist.
54 261. Ācāra, practice of knowledge, faith, right-conduct, penance, and power. I, p. 452; 0. of J., p. 133.
55 263. The śīlavratas are 7: the 3 meritorious (guņa) vows and the 4 proper disciplinary (siksā) vows.