Nav Smarana

Author(s): Vinod Kapashi
Publisher: Vinod Kapashi

Page 50

after twenty-one verses. This shows that other monks have added the other verses later. However, the manuscripts I have seen- which are all from 16th century onwards- give more then twenty-one verses. One, mss No 3032 of Pätan collection, has twenty-three verses whereas all remaining ones (see list of mss checked) have twenty-four verses. Nowadays the version with twenty-four verses is popular and it is recited during the annual Pratikramana ritual..
The one more and important reason in believing that there must have been originally twenty-one verses only is that the poet's name usually appears in the last verse. Here also, the poet Mäntunga's name appears in verse No. twenty-one, which leads one to believe that there must have been twenty-one verses in the original version.
The smarana has been named as the 'Bhaya-hara Stotra' (the recitation which removes all fears) and all main fears have been enumerated in twenty-one verses. The other three verses seem complimentary and put more stress on worshipping Pärshvanatha. This is one more reason to believe that the last three have been added afterwards.
8.3
The 'Extra' Verses
(22) May Pärshvanätha who was not perturbed by the obstacles created by Kamath and whom gods, humans and celestials etc., have worshipped be the victorious one.
(23) The one who knows the eighteen letter mantra (which is hidden) in the middle of this stotra), (automatically) meditates upon Pärshvanatha's ultimate blissful state manifested by the mantra.
The famous eighteen letter mantra is believed to have been included in the middle of this stotra. However one cannot clearly locate or identify the said mantra in this stotra.
The hidden mantra is composed of the following six words:
Namiuna Päs Vishahra Vasaha Jina Fullinga
This is also called the eighteen-letter mantra because of the following 18 letters as per the Sanskrit language.
na mi u na på svi s ha ra va sa ha ji na fu llin ga.
We cannot see all the six words in this stotra. The original stotra has been given in the appendix. The first word Namiuna is given at the very beginning and the words Päs, Vishara, Jina and fullinga are also found in various places. The word vasaha is nowhere to be found in this stotra. One can find separate letters only. This is a mystery. One fails to find the said mantra in this stotra. If one has to arrive at the mantra by finding different letters from here and there, then how can one be sure that this very mantra and not any other has been hidden in this stotra. One can formulate many different Mantras by choosing separate letters from different places. Indeed most of the letters of the whole alphabet are there.