Jain Journal 1997 04

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

Page 25

122
JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXI, No. 4 April 1997
stage, the playful stage, the experimental stage, the erect stage, the learning stage, the ascetic stage, the jina stage, and the prostrate stage. What he means is this : beginning with the day of birth, for (a period of) seven days, till they come out of a condition of mental obstruction, (living) beings are dull (manda) or semi-conscious (momūha). This he calls “the dull stage" (
manda-bhūmi). Afterwards those that have arrived in the present birth) from a state of torment (in a previous existence) perpetually cry and scream; while those that have come from a state of happiness laugh in the perpetual recollection of it. This he calls "the playful stage" (khidda-bhūmi).Then when they attempt to walk along on the ground, holding on to the hands or legs of their parents or to a bed or a stool, that he calls the "experimental stage" (vimamsā-bhumi): The time when they are fully able to walk on their feet, he calls "the erect stage” (ujugata-bhūmi). The time when they are made to learn the arts, he calls "the learning stage" (sekhabhumi). The time, when leaving their houses, they devote themselves to a life of ascetic mendicancy, he calls "the ascetic stage" (samaņabhūmi). The time when, after a continuous course of ascetic practices, they attain perfect knowledge, he calls "the Jina stage" (jina-bhūmi). When a mendicant, becoming a prostrate Jina, no longer speaks (ie., begs) anything, showing thereby that he has become an ascetic who is passed all wants, that he calls "the prostrate stage" (panna-bhūmi). 13
The expression forty-nine hundreds of mendicancies (ekūnapaññāsa ājiva-sate) signifies forty-nine hundreds (4900) 4 of modes of mendicancy. 13. Childers' translation of panna-bhümi by 'period of decay' (see s.v. puriso
in his Dictionary) hardly gives the meaning quite accurately. The stage referred to seems to be similar to that of the religious suicide in the Jain system; see Āchārānga Sutra (Jacobi's translation) 1, 7,8, pp. 74-78. It is only permitted to ascetics who have reached the highest degree of perfection, and is regarded as leading to final liberation. The ascetic gives up begging, selects a suitable place on which he lies down, and starves
himself to death. 14. Perhaps the object of the commentator may be to guard against the
expression being taken to mean one hundred and forty-nine'; and so on in the following cases. From the parallel passage in the Dulva (see Rokhill's Life of the Buddha, p. 103) it would seem that the numbers were sometimes taken in that sense. The corresponding numbers are there given as follows: "120 hells. 130 organs (or sensible distinctions). 36 elements of dust, 49,000 nägas, 49,000 garudas, 49,000 parivrajakas, 49,000 achelakas, 49,000 nirgranthas, 7 modes of conscious existence, 7 of unconscious existence, 7 as asuras, 7 as pisachas, 7 as devas, 7 human; there are 7 (or) 700 lakes, 7 (or) 700 (kinds of) writing (?), 7 (or) 700 dreams, 7 (or) 700 proofs (?), 7 (or) 700 kinds of precipices." These tenets are in Rokhill's