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BOOK 2, LECTURE 7.
431
(The two next paragraphs treat in exactly the same way of beings of an equally long life, which die simultaneously with him, and of beings of a short life, which die before him.) (24, 25)
And the Venerable One spoke thus: “There are some followers of the Sramanas, who have made this declaration : we are not able to strictly observe the Pôsaha-days, but we are able, when preparing ourselves for death by fasting, to abstain from food and drink without longing for the end. The vow of such a man is the Sâmâyika Dêsâvakâsika 1: (he declares) in the morning : (I shall travel) only thus or thus far in an eastern, western, southern, northern direction. He renounces injury to all beings: I shall cause peace and security to all sorts of living beings.
“Within those (limits) the movable living beings, which the follower of the Sramanas abstains from injuring till his death, will leave their life, and will then be born, within the same limits, as movable living beings, which the follower of the Sramanas abstains from injuring till his death. With regard to them the follower of the Sramanas has made a good renunciation. They are called animated beings, (&c., the rest as before). (26)
“The movable beings within those limits, &c. ?, will,
1 The Dêsâvakâsika 'consists in drawing closer or contracting every day the limits already laid down (in accordance with the Gunavratas) to the range of one's travels,' &c. The Gunavrata referred to is the Digvirati, i.e. 'to lay down a limit beyond which one shall not travel in the different directions, or a limit as to the countries one shall visit for the acquisition of wealth. From Bhandarkar Report, p. 114f. The explanation in the commentary materially agrees with the above.
2 The original repeats the phrases of the preceding paragraph.
