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APPENDIX B.
If any carelessness be mine with regard to this body and this time, I havo now renounced food, the clinging to the world, and the body. Then the fivefold formula of worship is my refuge, for that bringe welfare in this world and the next. And it is said :
"Dangers from desease, water, fire, robbers, lions, elephants, fights, and poisonous snakes vanish instantly by the supreme charm which consists of the formula of worship. And no danger from female imp. vampire, goblin, or Lamia prevails against it. And by the power of the formula of worship all calamities ranish. The it is said : " The assault of the elephant, the eight fetters of karna on those in whose innermost hearts continually abides the lion formula of worship', is frustrated »
Then remembering the formula of worship she pushed ahead in one direction, When she had gone far, she saw an ascetic. To his feet she went. She saluted him He asked her : "Whence have you come here, good lady?” Then she related: “T am the daughter of Cedaga and have just now been brought here by an elephant." And that ascetic was one of Cedaga's own subjects. He comforted her: "Do not criere. Just such is this unsubstantial samsāra, the cause of union and separation, full of birth, death, desease, and sorrow." With the fruits of the forest he made her sustain life against her own will, took her to his hermitage, and said to her : " From here on, the ground is til!ed with the plough; we do not set foot on it. This is the territory of Dantapur; and Dantavakkba is king here. Therefore go you fearless into this town; from here again set forth most cheerfully to Campā.” The ascetic returned. The other entered Dantapura. She went enquiring for a Jaina convent of nuns. She saluted the lady superior. She was questioned: “Whence comes the lady disciple ?" She told how matters stood. Crying bitterly, she was comforted a little by the superioress." Illustrious lady, do not give way to distress of mind. The development of one's fate can not be averted. For :
"As we know, it tears apart even what is united, and some things it unites although they are separated. Extremely dexterous is this fate in working weal and woe for beings. And, there is no happiness in the samsāra, where greatness is seen one moment and disappears the next, where various pleasures and sorrows change in a moment, where union and separation are only matters of a moment, Because this samzāra is a storehouse of manifold sorrows, just for that reason wise men here betake themselves to the path of final beatitude.”
Bing comforted in such and similar manner she was stirred to the depths of her soul and renounced the world on the spot in their convent. And although she
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Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
