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BOOK VI
1. Mahāvedanā and mahānirjară are technical terms. When due to specific cause(s), the intensity of pain increases, as it may happen in the case of the infernal beings, then these are said to be with great pain'. When karma is exhausted in a special manner, as in the case of a monk who uses a conscious process to exhaust it, it is called mahānirjará.
The statement one with great pain is also one with great exhaustion may be true of certain categories of beings, and not of all categories of beings. For instance, it does not apply to the infernal beings living in the sixth and the seventh hells who are with great pain but without exhaustion. Likewise, the statement 'one with great exhaustion is also one with great pain may be true of certain categories of beings, and is not univesally true. For instance, the omniscient is with great exhaustion but without pain.
2. Mahānirjarā and mahāparyavasāna would go together. With great termination of karma bondage, there is great termination of rebirth.
3. The relevant section in the Pannavaņā Sūtra has the following:
Q. Bhante ! Do infernal beings take live objects, nonlive objects or mixed objects ?
A. Gautama ! Infernal beings do not take live objects, nor mixed objects ; they take non-live objects.
4. The liberated souls are stated to be with a beginning but without an end. This has been a source of confusion to some on the ground that if the liberated, souls are with
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