Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 122

102
The Unknown Pilgrims
dead snake spread all around. The princes, much affected by this stench, covered their faces with the fold of their garments and stayed still, faces averted. The real Malli then addressed them: "O beloved of the gods, why do you cover your faces and stay thus still, your faces averted?" They replied that they could not abide the stench.... Malli went on: "Within this golden statue I have placed each day a little quantity of food, from which has resulted this mass of decomposed matter. Thus also is it with this material body whose functions issue in impurities: phlegm, mucus, bile, sperm, blood, pus, urine, faeces, bad breath...By nature this body decomposes..."26 And for their encouragement, she added:
O beloved of the gods, do not seek human beings for your gratification! Be not creatures of passion, ruled by desire, nor let yourselves lose your heads and be overwhelmed by excessive attachment! 27
The princes, convicted by the wisdom of these words, not only renounced Malli but subsequently embraced the way of asceticism. The dikşă of Malli and of her disciples was then celebrated with due pomp, she herself being already so purified that she attained perfect kowledge that very same day.28 She became Mallinātha and instructed all living beings in the dharma. She is the sole woman tirthankara. Her image in the temples is exactly like those of the other tirtharikaras, her sole distinguishing sign being her special emblem, the jar. She does not figure among the most highly venerated
26 Cf. Jñātādharmakathāḥ VIII, pp. 300-303.
27 tam má nam tubbhe devāņuppiya! nāņussaesu kāmabhogesu
rajjaha gijjhaha mujjhaha ajjhovavajjaha. ..Ibid., VIII, p. 303. The above translation is not literal, it expresses the sense of the verse.
28 Ibid., pp. 311-317; cf. also TrisalPC VI, 6, 1-266; and PPN, pp. 554-555.