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PREFACE : XXVII
service to the guru etc under the ascendance of some constellations. Further, Muniji has written that it (Ganividyā) forbids monastic ordination under the ascendance of the Śrāvana constellation while the canonical literature mentions monastic ordination of twenty Tīrtharkaras under the same constellation. How to accept the prohibition against the mentions in the canonical literature?” Muniji claims. We would like to ask Munijī, which are those canonical works, out of the thirty-two accepted by him, that mention the monastic ordination of twenty Tīrtharkaras under the ascendance of Sravana constellation? We do not know as to the basis on which Muniji has said this. If he had given the āgamic references, we could have thought about it. The subject of astrologically auspicious occasions for monastic ordination and other important events under particular constellations have been dealt with in the later literature and not in the thirty-two canonical works acceptable to the Sthānakavāsī and Terāpanthi traditions. Here, we would also like to mention that it might not be principally correct to depend on astrology to look for auspicious dates and times for events like monastic ordination and plucking of hair by ascetics, but as far as we know, in practice, whether it is the Sthānakavāsī or Terāpanthi or any other tradition, each and everyone of them look for such auspicious dates and times for such events and adhere to them.
The reason for the unacceptability of the present work, Mahápratyākhyāna, cited by Muniji is its sixty-second verse. The essence of this verse is that the living beings have enjoyed the extreme pleasures of being celestial as well as terrestrial kings (Indras and Rājās) and Kings emperors (Cakravartis) infinite number of times, but it has still not found satisfaction and contentment. In this context, Muniji writes, “This verse says that all living beings have been born as Devendra and Cakravarti
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