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 148

128
The Unknown Pilgrims
Those who have experienced and then rejected a life of pleasure go their way, light as the wind and joyous as the birds; they go and they come, as seems to them good...66
As the elephant who, having broken his fetters, sets forth towards his home (the forest), so, O great king Işukāra, [let us set forth towards our abode (nirvāņa); this (alone is) salutary. This I learned (from the sages]!67
Then, with clarity and conviction, she recounted to him the steps that must be followed to reach this abode: he must renounce his kingship and all pleasures, attain a perfect knowledge of the dharma, practise severe asceticism and, through self-mastery, win the title of "valiant one"! Thus, having renounced all things, the king, the queen, the priest, his wife and their sons were liberated. 68
It may be added that there were also notoworthy śrăvikās, among them Sulasā, wife of a charioteer of Rājagļha in the kingdom of Magadha. Mahāvira praises her perseverance in the path leading to perfection.69
C - After the Master's nirvāņa
At this point more particularly we enter the reals of conjecture. However, the main noteworthy facts of the period following the nirvāņa of Mahāvira up to the first Council of Påtaliputra in the third century, which with a few variants are common to both traditions,
66 bhoga bhoccā vamittā ya lahubhūyavihāriņo
āmoyamāṇā gaccharti diyā kamakamā iva. US XIV, 44.
67 nāgo vva baṁdhanam chettă appaņo vasahiṁ vae
eyaṁ patthaṁ mahārāyaṁ! Usuyārai tti me suyam. US XIV, 48.
68 Cf. US XIV, 49-53.
69 Cf. TrisalPC X, 6, 50-93; 9, 262-311; cf. also JSB Sam V, pp. 313-320; KS 136; PPN, p.838.