Sramana 1999 07

SR No.: 525038
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shivprasad
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 200
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Sramana, & India
File Size: 9 MB

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with dccp affection, who were fortunate enough to be the donors (dūtā) of alms lo such worthy mendicants, especially when the latter were on the verge of altaining cnlightenment. It is said that Rşabha, the first Jina of our time, wandered without food for a whole year and concluded his fast with a handsul of sugar cane juice offered by King Sreyārsa, a momentous cvent which was grccled by gods with a slower of wcalth. The Jainas still celebrate Ulis day, llic third day of the waxing noon of Vaišāklia (April-May), as thic Immortal Third (Akşaya-istīyā),20 and aspire to offer a similar gist lo mendicants who conclude their fasts on liat day. Mahāvīra, the last Jina, is also said to have wandered for six months without food and water and finally broke his fast with sonic lentils offered to him by a slave girl callcd Candanā who subscqucntly became the head nun of his community of 36,000 nuns.21 In the Buddhist tradition this honor goes to Lady Sujātā who had offered a dish of milk pudding to Siddhārtha Gautama on uic very day of his cnlightenment. It is said that this dish provided nourishinent for the enlightengd Gautama for 49 days.22
Fasting is an act of tapas and is figurativcly spoken of as a blazing fire in front of which mountains of snow of karma vanish, bringing the aspirant ever more closer to the goal of mokşa. The merit resulting from offering the proper food to such holy persons is therefore rightly unequaled by any other charitable activity of a householder. On the other hand, the perils of denying food to a sasting mendicant on his pāranā day are proportionately great and the lay community must remain vigilant lost the fire of his tapas engulf the socicty itsell! The Jaina narrative of Kamsa (thc notorious king of Maturā who was killed by Krşna) serves as an excellent illusualion of the dire consequences that follow upon a mendicant's long fast, the pāraņā of which has been thwarted by carelessness on the part of the laymen. In his former lise, unc soul of the person who will be known in his next life as the villain Kamsa, was a mendicant called Vasiştha. He practiced thc brahinanical asceticism of agnisūdhana, i.e. sitting in incditation surrounded by burning logs of wood, which the Jainas considered false tapas on account of the himsā caused by the blazing fire. Ilc was subsequently converted to Jainism and became a devoul Jaina monk of the Digainbara order. He lived on the mount Govardhana, and the reputation of his great tapas reached the court of King Ugrasena of Mathurā, himself an ardent lay follower of Vic Jina. The muri Vasiştha oncc