Atmanushasana

Author(s): J L Jaini
Publisher: Central Jaina Publishing House

Page 19

THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE JAINAS
to eat up the sun, and the moon, but fails in doing so because of his own incapacity in gulping them down. The moral is that sensedesires, infructuous as they are, should be duly restrained, and all energy should be directed towards self-control and acts of piety, beneficial here, and hereafter. साम्राज्यं कथमप्यवाप्य सुचिरात्संसारसारं पुनस्तत्त्यक्त्वैव यदि क्षितीश्वरवराः प्राप्ताः श्रियं शाश्वतीम् । त्वं प्रागेव परिग्रहान्परिहर त्याज्यान गृहीत्वापि ते माभूभौतिकमोदकव्यतिकरं संपाद्य हास्यास्पदम् ॥ ४०॥
40. Having after a long time and some how obtained the position of an Emperor (Chakravarti), the best (of all positions) in the world, the mighty monarchs obtained eternal bliss only by its renunciation. Thou shouldst (then) from the beginning renounce wordly entanglements, which are fit to be discarded. Be not thou an object of ridicule like (the person in the garb of) an ascetic (who rendered himself an object of) ridicule (by taking up) a sweet ball (which had fallen in filth, and who said that he would not eat it but would throw it away after washing it).
Commentary. The moral inculcated in this Shloka is that one should under no pretence or temptation take to worldly objects, which must be renounced as early as possible to enable one to attain liberation.
सर्व धर्ममयं कचित् कचिदपि प्रायेण पापात्मकम् काप्येतद्वयवत्करोति चरितं प्रज्ञाधनानामपि । तस्मादेष तदन्धरज्जवलनं स्नानं गजस्याथवा मत्तोन्मत्तविचेष्टितं न हि हितो गेहाश्रमः सर्वथा ॥४१॥
41. The household stage makes the stage life of even those who are rich in wisdom, sometimes of meritorious, sometimes all sinful, and sometimes both; it is thus like the making of a rope by the blind, or the bathing of an elephant, or the act of a mad man. It is not wholly beneficial.