________________
( 14
)
:
THEIR FOOD-INTERVAL, The gods take no ordinary food. But they have the sensation of hunger. This arises it fixed intervals. The interval in the number of years which is 1000 times the number of pagara. which constitutes the maximum age of the god.
Thus in the first and second heavens, the gods have a maxi. mum age of a little over 2 sagaras. Their food interval is 2000 years.
ON.
THEIR RESPIRATION. All living beings, the highest and the lowest, have four principal vitalities. (1) The vitality or Prana of senge. The lowest mundane soul has one sense of touch ; the highest has all the five senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing; (2) The vitality of mower. The lowest soul has the power of body only, the highest has all the three powers of body, speech and mind; (3) The vitality of age, which determines the duration of one's life; and (4) The vitality of respiration, by which every living embodied being inhales and exhales.
The gods have this vitality of respiration. Their respiration occurs at fixed intervals. The interval is the number of fortnights which is equal to the number of sagaras which constitutes the maximum age of the god.
Thus, in the first and second heavens the gods have a maxi. mum age of a little over 2 Sagara. Their respiration period is 2 fortnights. Their one breath takes one month.
A COMPARISON. Comparing the food-interval with the respiration period, we find that a god has the feeling of hunger in 2000 years, if his one respiration takes 2 fortnights or a month i. o. one food interval covers 24,000 respirations (2000 years have 24000 months.)
Now ordinarily a normal healthy person's respiration is about 18 to the minute, i. e. he has 18 x 60 x 24 = 25920 respirations in 24 hours. Therefore if a man lives like the gods, he should feel legitimate hunger only once in a day. Do not we ent toy m h ani too of ten ?
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
