________________
408 ]
[Rise of Mithyatva in Jamali
therefore, asked his disciples to prepare a bed for him. The hermits accordingly began to prepare a comfortable bed, but Saint Jamali was feeling so much uneasiness on account of fever that he asked them again as to whether they had prepared the bed or not. The hermits said yes.' But when Jamali went there he found that the bed was still being prepared. He was very much annoyed to see this. He sat down on the ground, and as his false faith matured, he said to the hermits,
"Take it from me, O hermits ! that you are wrong even now. Remember that a thing which is being done can not be said to have been done. The bed is still being prepared but you said that it was prepared. You told a lie to me which you ought not. Sometimes I disbelieve even the words of Arihanta Lord himself for if a thing is being produced,' he says that it has been produced' and if a work is being done, he says that it has been done.' A thing which belongs to the present or to the future cannot be associated with the past. If, on the other hand, the contrary be granted, there is the question of the sequence of time. By arguments and examples it can be easily proved that only that action is said to have been done' which has already been finished in the past. What I say is quite true and you must accept it as such. It is logical and practical, and every wise man must approve of it. Even the great do sometimes wander away from the right path and commit mistakes. It is, therefore, Arihanta Lords, who are endowed with the title of, 'Omniscient,' do not tell a lie. They are
wrong to say
that
.
men after all, and "to err is human."
When the hermits heard these words of Acharaya
Jain Education International
"
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org