Narrative Tale in Jain Literature

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 70

NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
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acknowledge his sin in that matter (as above, § 84, down to) to take on himself a penance, or is it for me to do so?"
The Samana, the blessed Mahāvīra, turning to Goyama, spoke to him thus : "Indeed, Goyama, it is thou who shouldst acknowledge thy sin in that matter, and (as above, & 84, down to) take on thyself a penance; and of Ananda, the servant of the Samana, thou shouldst ask pardon for that matter."
87. Then that blessed Goyama, saying "be it so," humbly accepted the decision of the Samaņa, the blessed Mahāvira; and having done so, he acknowledged his sin in that matter, and took on himself ascetic exercises (and so forth, as above, & 72), and of Ananda, the servant of the Samaņa, he asked pardon for that matter.
88. Then the Samaņa, the blessed Mahāvīra, for some time or other, abode elsewhere in a different country.
89. Then that at Ananda, the servant of the Samana, having sanctified himself by many exercises in the moral restraints imposed by the religious vows (and so forth, as above, S 86), and having followed the profession of a servant of the Samana for twenty years and having duly observed in his body (etc.) the eleven standards of an uvāsaga, now mortified himself by a course of emaceration continued through one month, during which he deprived himself of sixty meals, remaining entirely without food. At the end of the month allotted for his death having made confession of sins and promise of amendment, and being sunk in deep spiritual abstraction, he attained his death, and was re-born as a deva in the Aruna abode, situated towards the north-east of the grand abode of the Sohamma paradise, in the Sohamma heaven. There a certain class of deva is ordained to enjoy and existence through four paliovama periods. There Ananda also is ordained to enjoy an existence through four paliovama periods.
90. Then Goyama enquired of Mahavira: "Reverend Sir, Ananda, the deva, on making his descent from that world of devas after the termination of his allotted life (etc.) - where will he go to, and where will he be re-born?"
Mahāvīra replied : "O Goyama, in the Great Videha country he will attain perfection.” (Here the usual Conclusion is to be inserted.)
[Taken from the translation of Uvāsagadasāsutta by A.F. Rudolf Hoernle, the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1888)