Lilavai

SR No.: 002796
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 500
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 15 MB

Page 55

28
LILĀVAT
merchant Dhana lived quite happily fulfilling their respective duties. One day a religious teacher, Sudharama by name, discourses to them on the path of liberation: The misery of Samsāra is caused by Asravas (himsă etc.), five Moha-kasāyas (moha, krodha etc.) and the five sense-organs. The worldly being is overpowered by sense-temptations, then gets surcharged with infatuation or delusion and passions, and thereafter is addicted to five sins (himsă etc.): thus he loses the (power of) knowledge etc. He explains to them the nature of krodha & hiisā, māna & mrşā, māyā& steya, moha & maithuna and lobha & parigraha ; and then illustrates with five stories the dire consequences of these pairs through various births. The story of prince Rämadeva, for instance, illustrates the effects of krodha & hiinsa. Then follow five more stories to explain the fruits of addiction to senses, and herein the former births of those very hearers like Vijayasena etc. are exposed. Hearing their own past lives from Sudharmasūri, all of them get disgusted with worldly pleasures, enter the ascetic order and lead a religious life with great devotion to knowledge and penance. After death they are born as friendly gods in the Saudharma heaven. In their subsequent births, they are born as human beings in different places. It is the soul of Jayaśāsana, who illustrates the effects of attachment to rasanendriya, that is reborn as the son of king Jayasekhara of Kuśåvartapura in the Malaya country and is named as Samarasena. The prince Samarasena is heavily addicted to hunting, but he is enlightened by a god, once his friend Purohita Sūra in an early life; and consequently he accepts renunciation and becomes an eminent religious teacher.
By his superior knowledge acquired through severe austerities Samarasenasūri comes to know the whereabouts of his friends in earlier lives; he goes to them and impresses on them the hollowness of worldly pleasures and the need of leading an ascetic life. The soul of Simharaja (with his queen Līlāvati) is one of those ten souls whose destinies have been illustrated in those stories, and the saint Samarasena has come to Rajagrha to enlighten him. Both king Simha and queen Lilăvati become aware of their religious duties, accept renunciation and attain liberation in the end. That is how this work contains the stories of ten souls which struggle in this Samsāra and finally attain liberation by adopting the religious life.
The pattern of this tale is quite normal in Jaina works. This work, however, shows special excellence in its realistic delineation of
1 इन्द्रियविजितो मोहकषायैर्जीयतेऽसुमान् । ततः प्राणातिपातादौ सक्तो ज्ञानादि हारयेत् ॥