Agam 39 Chhed 06 Mahanishith Sutra

Author(s): Punyavijay, Rupendrakumar Pagariya, Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Granth Parishad

Page 37

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MAHANISIHA STUDIES AND EDITION IN GERMANY
penalty for her sin under the excuse that this is meant for somebody else, and then to perform the repentance herself. She dies and is reborn as a maid-servant, now called. Khandottha, in the services of a harlot, who pains her as she is more beautiful than the harlot (who is called thert and ves'ajja) herself. A dream warns Khandoṭṭhā of the intention of the harlot to maim her limbs, hence she runs away and in a foreign place gets married to the son of a rich widow. The first wife of her husband deforms Khandotha because of envy and thus kills her. The husband becomes a monk out of grief. However, Khandotthä, rather her soul (sometimes masc., sometimes fem. pronoun), has to undergo many tragic rebirths till she will in future driven out of the village as a dakini - see the Tirthankara Padma and simply because of this darśana attain moksa.
Sec.8, $51-11, vss.306-385.
After a series of vocatives to Mahavira (§§1-11), follows the question (vss.306-11): Why is the dharma not preached in such a way that to attain monkhood the devotee would need a chain of eleven existences, while according to the prevailing doctrine he has to undertake unbelievable austerity to reach salvation within one birth. In the case of the first alternative even tender persons could be won over for the teachings. Before an answer to this query is given through a parable (vss.374-85), the immediately following sub-section deals with the "tender" (dullaliya and sukumāliya); it is metrically even more irregular than the preceding ones and it remains unclear at many places. A tender person in the real sense of the term is only the Tirthankara. When he is in the womb of his mother, Indra serves him with amṛta; at the time of his birth, his country is free from pains and diseases; the gods initiate him and all, gods and human beings, praise him. (vss.312-20). After a short enjoyment of worldly pleasures he recognizes their unsteadiness and leaves them in order to practice tapas (vss. 321-25). How different is in contrast the tenderness of those who wish to attain that what they feel as luck within one life-time (vss.326-28). They undertake various arduous tasks and have to be satisfied if at least they attain something, may be a rag! (vss.329-32). They leave their friends and pleasures to collect under troubles some small copper coins (vss.333-36). Their tenderness is such that they do agree with the dharma but do not work for it (vs.337). Verses 338-47 seem to deal with the troubles and dangers one undergoes to attain a woman. If he is told to remain firm in the dharma, he answers that he is unable to do so. These "tender persons" do not realize that through exertion, and only through exertion, one can attain all, i.e. salvation (vss.348-52). A sub-section about the preeminence of the Tirthankaras follows (vss.353-60). The question of Goyama in vs.361 is: can each and everyone attain salvation through exertion? The answer of Mahavira is something like this (some points remain unclear): Even in the worldly affairs everyone can not perform the same task and in same proportions as somebody else would. He who does not perform austerities in a single existence falls down in bad existences.