________________
NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
95
an exact resemblance to herself, and put it into this house. This figure had an opening on the head, into which she put remnants of her meals every day. She took care to conceal the opening carefully with lotus blossoms. The princes were conducted into this "puzzling house." While they are admiring the figure of the princess through a wall of netting. Malli herself appears. She opens the figure, and a terrible stench is spread about, so that the princes hastily cover their faces and turn away, whereupon the beautiful princess moralises on the fact that the inside of her lovely body is even much more loathsome than the inside of this figure. They should therefore not set any store on the enjoyment of love. She then tells the story of her former births, in which the six princes also played a part, and announces that she has decided to become a nun, whereupon the six princes also renounce the world.
VIII
ATTAINMENT OF EXISTENCE In the Aupapātikadasāsūtra an anecdote is given for the
"attainment of an existence" (Uvaväya) :
“The same form which the enlightened one had at the last moment, when leaving this earthly existence, that same form he has yonder, only that it is intensified in its soulatoms. From the form which was large or small in the last existence, one-third will be lacking in the size and bulk of the enlightened one... They are without a body, densely compact of soul-atoms, they cherish a right belief and a right knowledge as regards objects in particular as well as in general. By reason of their being able to exercise omniscience, they recognise the nature of all things and their temporal qualities; with a never-ending, penetrating, keen glance of their intellect, they look in every place. Neither among human beings nor among all the gods is
house stands, with net-work walls, so that the princes could be led into the house, without knowing of one another, and yet could all see the same figure.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
