Jain Legend Vol 2

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

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After the 23rd chapter, the text portrays the debate between Indrabh ti Gautama and Prvapatya Paidh laputra. It also illustrates how Pedalaputra renounced the C tury midharma (with four major vows) and took up Pamca-mah vrata (five fold major vows) Dharma after listening to the enlightened preaching from Indrabh ti Gautama.
S tra k at mga virtually serves as a guide for spiritual-practitioner to acquire philosophical knowledge. Studying, analysing, recollecting and Nididhy sana of this gama are a must for a sage. This gama encourages implementing the high spiritual principles in life, to abandon all other beliefs, practice humility, which is the highest virtue, and to lead an ideal ascetic life. From a philosophical point of view, this gama brought into light the then way of thinking in an impressive manner. The beautiful and substantive analysis of spiritual subjects presented in this text with examples & illustrations, helps to understand the pattern of Indian life, philosophy and spirituality.
3. Sth n mga
Sth n mga occupies the third place in Dw damg. A compendium of topics like self-same (Svasamaya), non-self same (Parasamaya), Svapara - Ubhayasamaya, J va-Aj va, and Loka-Aloka are discussed in this canon. It consists of one ruta ska dha, 10 chapters, 21 topics, 21 sub topics and 72000 verses. The available text of this S tra has 3770 verses.
This S tra describes certain events that occurred after the nirva of Mah v ra, from second to sixth century. To arrive at an opinion that therefore the Sth n mga was not written by a Ga adhara, but by some later c rya, is not justified at all. On this, two points are to be specially considered. The first being, great knowledgeable author of the S tra, predicted some of the future events well in advance. For example, in the ninth place of Sth n mga, the life of Mah padama, the future T rthamkara of the next Utsarpi i K la has been described. The second point is that during the gama V can , Skandil c rya and Dev rdhiga recorded as the gama text what was earlier traditionally kept in memory ( ruta - Parampar ). It is possible that, while recording, the essence of the original text was safely retained and some essential addition might have been made keeping in view the occasion/time
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