Jain Journal 1973 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 82

234
this world tormented by disease, birth, old-age, and death. All souls are kin; after they are born, they are strangers. Who would make any tie at all with them? One creature is born; one dies; one has pleasant experiences; he has painful experiences. On the one hand, this body; while on the other hand are grain, money, et cetera ; on the one hand relatives; on the other hand, the soul.
JAIN JOURNAL
'The foolish man becomes confused uselessly. What intelligent man would form an infatuation for the body, the house of impurity, filled with fat, blood, flesh, bone, liver, excrement and urine? This body, even when it is cherished and cared for, is perishable and must soon be given up like a house taken for rent. Surely the body, whether brave or cowardly, must die. Therefore, the wise man should die in such a way that he would not die again.
"The Arhats are my refuge; the Siddhas and sädhus are my refuge. The dharma taught by the omniscients is my refuge above all. The Jina's dharma is my mother; my guru is my father; the sādhus are full brothers; co-religionists are relatives. Other things are like snares.
'I pay homage to all the Tirthankaras, Risabha and the others; I bow to the Arhats of Bharata, Airavata, and Videha. The formula of homage to the Tirthakrits is being made for the destruction of birth of corporeal beings, and especially for the acquisition of enlightenment. I pronounce the formula of homage to the blessed Siddhas by whom the fuel of karma produced by a thousand births was burned by the fire of meditation. Homage, homage to the Acaryas with the five-fold practices who, always zealous for the destruction of birth, maintain knowledge of the scriptures. Who possess all the sacred knowledge and teach it to disciples, homage especially to them, noble teachers (Upadhyayas). Homage, homage to the sadhus possessing the disciplinary vows, who destroy evil attached to a thousand births.
'I renounce censurable activity and also attachment to worldly objects inner and outer, so long as I live, three-fold in three ways. I give up the four kinds of food so long as I live and I renounce the body, too in the last breath."
After he had so made the censure of evil acts, the asking pardon of (and bestowing on) (all) creatures, reflection, the resort to the four, the formula of homage, and fasting--the six-fold ārādhana, Muni Nandana asked forgiveness of the teachers of dharma, the sadhus, and the sādhvis in full. After he had fasted for sixty days, he died in concentrat