Pat Darshan

SR No.: 032780
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kalpana K Sheth, Nalini Balbir
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 154
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 30 MB

Page 141

1) Ajitanatha spent the rainy season on Siddhacala. His disciple named Sudharma came on the top of the mountain for darshan taking some water for the trip. The monks sat to take rest in the middle of the day, putting their water dish aside. Suddenly a crow made a quick swoop and the water was spilled. The monk rebuked the bird and threw a curse. From this time on, crows disappeared from this place. The monk thought that his homage had been polluted and that it should never again happen to anybody else. He wished that pure water would always be available there. From this time the place was known as Ulasajhola (such is the spelling of the document; commonly known as Ulkhajal or Ulkajal; see Kanchansagarsuri [1982] captions to plates 94-95; Gunratna Surishwar [1998] p. 138). Ajitanatha predicted that Shatrunjaya would be the place where the monks would be emancipated. They performed ritual death and were emancipated. > SatrMah. VIII.232-244: emphasis on the fact that crows will disappear from the place and on the curative and purifying power of the water found on the hill. The 60000 sons of the second Cakarvartin, Sagara, with Jinakumara at their head, asked permission from their father to undertake a pilgrimage to the Astapada where the memorial to their ancestor Rsabha is located. Considering that future times were going to be difficult and that this memorial might be endangered, they decided to make use of the staff-jewel to dig a moat memorial behind the Astapada in order to protect it. 2) Their digging activity disturbed the Bhavanapati deities (= the Nagas) underneath. They were inflamed with anger. Seeing on the one hand the sacred Astapada and on the other the behaviour of the princes, they came to them, explained the situation to Jinakumara and then went back to their living place. The princes then thought that the moat had to be filled with water in order to be useful. They filled the moat with the water from the Ganga. Now, the Bhavanapatis' homes were flooded by this water. This time the chief of the Nagas, inflamed with anger, killed the princes by burning them. Seeing this, the chiefs (of Sagara's army) decided to take revenge. But Indra, seeing through his avadhi knowledge that some disaster was going to happen, took the disguise of a Brahmin, with the aim to convince everybody that death is not something that can be avoided. He appointed some soldiers, told them what to do, took an army and entered Ayodhya. He entered the city in the disguise of a Brahmin, carrying a corpse on his shoulders. He approached the door of Sagara's royal palace and started lamenting aloud. To the Cakravartin's questions, he answered that he had only one son who had died of a snake bite, that all solutions to revive him had proved useless. Only one remained: to find a kumari-bhasma "virgin-ashes". i.e. a house where death had never happened, which as a powerful emperor he should be able to find. The Cakravartin took the Brahmin in the town in search for this, finally going to his mother, who said that there is no such thing in the house. When the Brahmin started to cry even louder, Sagara tried to explain him the impermanence of the world. The Brahmin answered through a striking sentence: "To explain is easy, to understand is difficult". Sagara did not agree, answering that both things are easy. While both were chatting, the news that Sagara's 60000 sons had died came to the palace. Indra, leaving the disguise, reverted to his true form, and explained the situation to Sagara. Ajitanatha arrived for the samavasarana and preached the dharma. He celebrated the greatness of Shatrunjaya. Everybody was full of joy and serenity. > SatrMah. VIII. 244ff.; Hemacandra, Trisasti. II.5.51-11.6.219. But the means suggested by Indra as a Brahmin to revive his dead son is not identical in these versions. In Hemacandra's work, the 134 पटदर्शन