Life and Stories of Jaina Savior Parcvanatha

Author(s): Maurice Bloomfield
Publisher: Maurice Bloomfield

Page 40

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Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
They passed their lives in the pleasures of the senses. Viçvabhūti, in time, made over the care of his house to his sons, lived in fast under the direction of a holy Teacher, pondered with his whole soul the mantra of the Parameşthinamaskāra, and, abandoning his body, was reborn as a god in the Sāudharma heaven. Also his bereaved wife Anuddharā, desolated over the loss of her husband, thinking that for her there was no further happiness, practised profound penance and died (17-37).
Kamatha and Marubhūti performed in sorrow the funeral rites for their parents. Then the great Sage Hariccandra, compassionate and generous, arrived in a park outside the city. The citizens, singing songs of praise, swarmed about him like bees, attracted by the fragrance of his virtues. The two brothers also went there, anxious to dispel their grief for the loss of their parents thru the consolations of religion. The Sage preached the Law (dharma), winding up with the following illustration: Devotion to religion leads to success, as in the case of Lalitānga; the reverse leads to destruction, as in the case of his servant, Sajjana (38-60):
Story of Lalitāñga and his servant Sajjana 4 In the city of Crīvāsa ruled Naravāhana, whose wife Kamalā bore him a son, Lalitāñga, endowed with many engaging qualities, prominent among them munificence, which he carried on to the point of passion (73). With
* Mantra addressed to the five Paramesthing, Yugādica (Rşabha), Canti (Çăntinatha), Nemi (Aristanemi), Parçva, and Vira (Mahāvīra); see Weber, Über das Catrumjaya Māhātmyam, p. 15. The prayer is used by Jains as last resort in danger, and before death; see, e. g. Kathakoca, pp. 104, 124, 214, and often in this book.
This story in briefer form in Kathakoça, p. 160 ff.; and in Suvabahuttarikathā, nr. 72 (see Hertel in Festschrift an Ernst Windisch, pp.