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Namo Maha-Mantra
LEONA SMITH KREMSER
... Om Sänti. Now spoke the aged nun, Rajimati, And light of the Mahā-Mantra made splendrous her discourse :
“Mid this region of labour, Mid the torments of this recurring body-experience, There is yet a sanctuary, 0 gift from the Jina. 'Tis like a rosy hearth mid a Himalayan night Whereto ye are led by your good servant, one-pointed mind.
Sanctuary that is of the prayer, O the Great Prayer, O Mahā-Mantra.
“Gift to our souls from our Jina Nemi. Now, heed ye the bygone occasion of His benevolent act. - 'Tis said His body-presence now adorns the Deccan Where glitters the dust of His feet with the Three Jewels, Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct, That led Him from Dyaraka prince, to monk, to Jina, The selfsame Three Jewels now leading ye to Him. Now, heed ye His enlightenment under the cane tree On hallowed Mt. Girnar that nurtured His fifty-five days. His first precept was compassion for the food-animals, Alas, that foremost cruelty of their needless deathblows, Thus on their bloodstains He laid His spiritual hand. Then, His omniscient eye swept all them in waiting, Four sections of celestials, men and women, and animals, And His eye beheld all seasons of their many-sided lives, Wherefrom rose one crying need for a sanctuary Mid the nightfalls of karma and transmigration That woefully afflict all living beings. Thus His charity proclaimed the Mahā-Mantra.
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