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APRIL, 1982
151
Lord : “Ye High-minded ! Your spiritual progress is not wasted for every step carries over into coming lives. O joy, that your merit survives. Ye Blackbuck! Ye are betrayed by the body. Ye Blackbuck! Your soul is your faithful identity."
Blackbuck : "O survivor of my murky hour of death terror."
Lord : "May this truth of the Jaina religion move ye blackbuck towards self-realization, for ye are your own duantless soul in the reality of the Jaina eternity.”
(Now all the animals have spoken, still their circle is unbroken and their eyes are mirrors, silvery and patient, as the Lord, all-knowing, awaits their consent.)
Said the Camel (at long last): “... Not vengeance, lest I take on his burden of ignorance. Yet karma grants justice to camel-driver or rajah, so will our Lord tell His vision of this flesh-eater in hell ?”
Said the Lord (apart) : “Harsh answer for meek ears is hardly proper ... Ye Vegetarians ! 'Tis futile that ye attend the end result of carnivores' evil. Thus fix your kindly gaze upward on the floating white islands of celestial reward. Ye Camel, prepare yourself for a vision of hell Flesh-eater, dying and plunging downward into a smoky pit that demons guard
- demons jolly at their trick with hellfire and a roasting stick.1
"Reference : Lalwani, Prof. K. C., translator, Uttaradhyayana Sutra, p. 215, Calcutta, 1977.
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