Agam 13 Upang 02 Rajprashniya Sutra Sthanakvasi

Author(s): Amarmuni, Tarunmuni, Shreechand Surana, Trilok Sharma
Publisher: Padma Prakashan

Page 13

dogmatic and agnostic king Pradeshi yields before him and accepts that "All this while he was wrong and had belief in falsehood." RELIGION TRANSFORMS LIFE
The central theme or the spirit of this Agam is to establish the independent identities of soul and body and proceed towards proving that soul is life-force (chetan) that is indestructible and eternal whereas body is an aggregate of lifeless matter that is ephemeral and destructible. Once accepted that body is ephemeral, the bonds of fondness, love and attachment for it are loosened. The intoxication of wealth, grandeur, pleasures, enjoyments and power is also diluted. The whole life of a person undergoes a sea change. It is like--everything changes with a change in viewpoint. A person with faith in violence and cruelty turns peaceful and compassionate. A person infatuated with mundane pleasures becomes so detached from the body that he has no aversion or animosity for his own wife trying to poison him He continues his spiritual practices with equanimity even while suffering acute pain He remains calm and serene even when his body runs very high temperature. This astonishing change in the life of king Pradeshi is indeed unique. A person whose palms and sword were ever smeared with blood of others-terrible bandits, dacoits, murderers and criminals trembled at the mention of his name—one day welcomes death with equanimity and that too without any anger or hatred for the person who mixed poison in his food.
How fundamental a transformation in the same person's attitude. A great sinner one day turns into a highly religious person. The cause of this transformation is belief in religion, faith in the existence of soul and spiritual way of life
A person deserving a rebirth in hell due to his extremely cruel deeds is reborn as a very powerful and affluent god From a deep ravine he rises to the hilltop. So interesting and occupying is this astonishing tale of king Pradeshi, the central character of this Agam THE NAME
'Rai-paseniya Sutra' is the second among the twelve Upanga Sutras (the subsidiary Anga canon). This is the subsidiary of the second Anga Agam Sutrakritanga Whenever I read or include this scripture in my discourse, I enjoy it very much as also does the audience That is the reason I decided to take up this book this year in the Illustrated Agam project.
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