Fasting Unto Death According To Jaina Tradition

Author(s): Colette Caillat
Publisher: Colette Caillat

Page 9

FASTING UNTO DEATH ACCORDING TO THE JAINA TRADITION
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abundant, zealous, earnest, happy, blissful, lucky, auspicious, splendid, lofty, magnificent, excelling, exalted, stately mortification, (Khandaga) became withered, wizened, fleshless; he became a mere frame of bone and skin; he grew so that his bones rattled, emaciated, overspread with veins. It was by force of spirit alone that he walked and he halted. He was faint after speaking, and in speaking, and before speaking. As forsooth a cart full of sticks, or of leafage, or of oil-seed and jars and leafage, or of castor oil sticks, or of coals, that has been put out in the heat and dried up, goes with a creaking and halts with a creaking, so [Khandaga] went with a creaking and halted with a creaking, being piled high with mortification and piled low with flesh and blood, and like an (oblation-devouring) fire confined within a heap of ashes he shone mightily with glow (tapas), with lustre [tejas), and with splendour of glowing lustre (tapas + tejas)'. 29
Then, during his religious vigil, in the middle of the night, Khandaga sums up the situation: he considers all the signs of his physical weakness, but, at the same time, he knows he has two advantages. First, he is still possessed of energy, work, power, vigour, manly force, prowess'; secondly, he has the benefit of Lord Mahāvīra's spiritual guidance.30 Therefore, he decides to take advantage of these favourable circumstances: 'On the mor
viva bhāsa-rāsi-padicchanne tavenam teenam tava-teya-sirie ativa 2 uvasobhemāņe 2 ciffhai.
29 The last metaphor is met with elsewhere, for instance:
nivväņam paramam jāi ghaya-sitto vva pāvae,
'he goes to the supreme n., like (fire) sprinkled with ghee', Mahāpaccakkhāna, 23;
jittā maņam kasāe yā jo sammam kurute tavam samdippate sa suddh'appa aggi va havisdhute,
'he who, having subdued pride and passions, correctly practises tapas, puresouled, he shines like a fire upon which a libation has been poured', Isibhāsiyaim, 29 (17).
Thus is suggested a sort of homology between the man engaged in tapas and the (brahmanic!) sacrificial fire.
30 ... me uffhāņe, kamme, bale, virie, purisakkara-parakkame; tam jāva tā me atthi u. k. b. v. p., jāva ya me dhamm'āyarie dhammôvadesae samaņe Bhagavam Mahavire ...tāva tā me seyam..., Viy 424, 14-17.