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70
JAINA ANTIQUARY
of thousands of lighted lamps to the blind?
पंपि सुमहीयं पगासयं होइ चरणजुत्तस्स । पक्कोऽवि जह पईवो सबक्खुयस्सा पयासेइ ॥
[ Vol. III
Even the knowledge of one who has read but a little of the scriptures acts as the revealer if he practises caranam. Even if there be one lamp, it is the revealer to him who has the eye.
जहा खरो चंद्णभारवाही भारस्स भागी नहु चंदणस्स | एवं खु नाणी चरणेण होणो, नाणस्स भागी नहुसुग्नतिए ||
As an ass bearing the burden of sandal wood is the sharer only of the burden and not of the sandal wood, even so, the knower, void of caranam, bears the burden of knowledge, but is not the sharer of good attainment.
The commentary explains: The ass only suffers the pain of bearing the heavy load of the sandal wood, and does not enjoy the pleasure of smearing the body with sandal-paste etc. The knower also who is not self-restrained suffers the pain of acquiring knowledge-reading, remembering and thinking-but does not attain the destination of good deva-hood or man-hood.
हयं नाणं कियाहीणं हया अन्नाणओ किया । great quaì zedì, aramrut q siya? ||
Knowledge without action is killed (becomes ineffective), action without knowledge is killed. The lame man, looking on, was burnt, so also, was the blind man, while fleeing. Here a story is told: Once there was a conflagration in a great city; in it lived two helpless men the one was lame, the other blind. The people of the city, frightened by the fire, with eyes rolling in distraction, began to flee from it, but the lame man, knowing full well the way of escape, but deprived of the faculty of movement, could not flee but was consumed by the gradually approaching fire. The blind man also possessed of the faculty of moving, but deprived of the faculty of seeing, and hence not knowing the way of escape, ran towards
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
