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Atmānuśāsana
आत्मानुशासन
excellent fruit of merit (punya) through austerities. Due to indifference to worldly existence - vairāgya - he goes on to perform austerities, while protecting his body, for a very long time. (verses 115-116)
The ascetic's discriminating knowledge Gjñāna) prevents him from getting rid of the body, a source of afflictions. Even great men had to endure afflictions due to the body. Adinātha Tirthankara had to wander on earth without getting food for six months. No one in this world is able to transgress the ways of the evil own-fate (daiva). (verses 117-119)
The ascetic, in the beginning, is endowed primarily with luminosity of knowledge (jñāna), and later on, with both, conduct (caritra) and knowledge. Due to the effect of the scriptural knowledge, he moves from the stage of disposition that is inauspicious (aśubha, marked by asamyama) to auspicious (śubha, marked by samyama) and finally, void of all karmic dirt, to pure (suddha). With the destruction of the darkness of ignorance, he illumines like the rising sun. Only if he leaves the light of knowledge that illumines the nature of substances, and embraces ignorance, he goes astray. The true ascetic who treads the path illumined by the brilliance of the Three Jewels (ratnatraya) reaches his desired destination of liberation. (verses 120-125)
Women have 'drstivişa’ in form of seductive half-glances. Do not fall prey to them. They kill both, those they see and those who see them. And, there is no remedy for removing their poison. Noble men go for that beautiful and high-born woman, called 'mukti' or 'liberation'. They adorn her with the ornament of the Three Jewels (ratnatraya). They have excessive love solely for her. (verses 126-128) Those who go near women get killed by excessive lust. They are pushed into deplorable states of existence, like the infernal state of existence. It is extremely difficult to yet again get birth as a human being. The lust for women is a slaughter-house for men. (verses 129-130) Fie on the ascetic whose body has become like a half-burnt corpse but seeks enjoyment from women. Blinded by lust, he is sure to get into trouble. He reflects on great harm that even minute carnal inclination can bring to him. Just as the male elephant falls into the camouflaged pit, the ascetic treading the arduous path to liberation falls into the concealed pit in form of women. Women are the deadliest poison. If the woman's
(XXVIII)
