Jain Journal 1976 10

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

Page 13

OCTOBER, 1976
52
souls go). It is forty-five hundred thousand yojanas long, and as many broad, and it is somewhat more than three times as many in circumference. Its thickness is eight yojanas, it is greatest in the middle, and decreases towards the margin, till it is thinner than the wing of a fly. This place, by nature pure, consisting of white gold, resembles in form an open umbrella, as has been said by the best of Jinas.
"(Above it) is a pure blessed place (called Sita), which is white like a conch-shell, the anka-stone, and Kunda-flowers, a yojana thence is the end of the world. The perfected souls penetrate the sixth part of the uppermost krosa of the (above-mentioned) yojana. There, at the top of the world reside the blessed perfected souls, rid of all transmigration, and arrived at the excellent state of perfection. The dimension of a perfected soul is two-thirds of the height which the individual had in his last existence.
“The perfected souls considered singly–egattena (as individuals) -have a beginning but no end, considered collectively-buhuttená (as a class)—they have neither a beginning nor an end.
“They have no visible form, they consist of life throughout, they are developed into knowledge and faith ... they have crossed the boundry of the samsāra, and reached the excellent state of perfection."
Like both the Brahmanas and Buddhists, the Jainas have a series of hells-Narakas, numbering seven which they name :
1. Ratnaprabha 2. Sarkaraprabha 3. Valukaprabha 4. Pankaprabha 5. Dhumaprabha 6. Tamaprabha 7. Tamatamaprabha
Those who inhibit the seventh hell have a stature of 500 poles, and in each above that they are half the height of the one below it.
Everything in the system as to stature of gods and living beings, their ages and periods of transmigration is reduced to artificial numbers.