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CHAPTER-I
21
"बहुगुणाविज्जाणिलयो, असुत्तभासी तहावि मुत्तव्यो ।
JE CHIOT a fa , faveurt fahit al ll" (3. fh. T. HIST) The one who possesses many virtues like forbearance, modesty, etc. and has knowledge of grammar, etc. but is a perverse discourser (wrong-interpreter) he is worth discarding. For instance, a snake though possessing costliest jewel, yet it is only a source of trouble in the world. (5) He must not have any desire of accomplishing the temporal acts like earning livelihood, etc. by means of giving discourses on Shastras; for, if he has expectation then he can not preach (the truth) correctly; he simply makes it a source of accomplishing his objective by giving lectures according to the desire of some listeners. Moreover, the preacher's rank is higher than that of listeners; but, if the preacher be greedy, then the preacher will himself become inferior and the listeners will become superior. (6) He should not have intense anger and pride, because the highlypassioned (angry & haughty) person will be criticized, the listeners will be fearful of him, then how would they be benefitted by him? (7) He should himself raise different questions and provide answers or if other people raise questions many times in different ways, then through soft (sweet) words he should clarify in such a way that their doubt is removed. In case he himself does not have the capacity to answer rightly then he should say that he himself lacks knowledge of it; for, if this be not so, the doubt of the listeners will not be removed. How will then there be good of them? And the glorification of Jaina-faith will also not be possible. (8) He should not indulge in any immoral and publicly censurable activities, for he would become a place of laughter due to indulgence in publicly censurable deeds; who would then trust his words? He will bring bad name to Jainafaith. (9) He should not be of low caste, not be a crippled fellow, not have hoarse voice, be of sweet tongue, should be influential so that he may be acceptable to the people; for, if it be not so then the orator's greatness will not be reflected in him. The above qualities are essential in the discourser. The same is stated in Atmanushasana :
"प्राज्ञः प्राप्तसमस्तशास्त्रहृदयः प्रव्यक्तलोकस्थितिः, प्रास्ताशः प्रतिभापरः प्रशमवान् प्रागेव दृष्टोत्तरः । प्रायः प्रश्नसहः प्रभु परमनोहारी परानिन्दया, ब्रूयाद्धर्मकथा गणी गुणी गुणनिधिः प्रस्पष्टमिष्टाक्षरः ।५।"
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