Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
[210] [The first sutra of the Jiva-Jiva-Abhigma Sutra, or the Sutra of the Approach of Souls, is as follows: Just as a blacksmith's son, who is young, strong, and skilled, takes a large piece of iron, the size of a small water pot, and heats it, beats it, and forges it for a day, two days, three days, or even a month, and then, with a pair of tongs, grasps the hot and fully heated ball of iron, and with a false notion, throws it into the cold hell (thinking, "I will take it out in the blink of an eye," but sees it melting, dissolving, and perishing, and is unable to take it out in its unmelted form), so should one describe the situation of the Niryayika in the cold hell. And one should also describe the example of the elephant in the same way, as it emerges from the lake and roams about in peace and comfort.] In the same way, O Gautama, the Niryayika, who has emerged from the cold hell with a false notion, sees the cold places in this human world, such as snow, snowdrifts, snowfields, snowfield clusters, frost, frost clusters, snow ponds, snow pond clusters, ice, and cold clusters, and enters them. There, he quenches his hellish cold, thirst, hunger, fever, and burning, and experiences peace and sleeps, closing his eyes, until he warms up, becomes very warm, and slowly emerges from there, experiencing happiness and comfort. O Gautama, the Niryayika in the cold hell experiences even worse cold than this. [90] O Venerable One, how long is the state of the Niryayika in the Ratna-Prabha-Pruthvi (Earth of Radiant Jewels) described? Gautama, it should be described according to the position of the Pannvana, from the lowest to the highest, up to the seventh earth below. [91] O Venerable One, where do the Niryayika of the Ratna-Prabha-Pruthvi go after they emerge from there? Where do they go? Do they go to the Niryayika, or do they go to the Tiryak-Joni (animal realms)? The description of their emergence should be given in the same way as it is described in the scriptures, up to the highest.