Practical Path

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

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THE PRACTICAL PATH.
the soul, they were readily committed to memory, and employed in their daily meditation by mystically inclined poets and saints. Their sanctity increasing with age, they became, with the lapse of time invested with the fullest amount of veneration paid to revealed truth, and were given credit for all sorts of miraculous powers by the mystery-loving tendency of a mystic faith. Thus it was that the later generations received these hymns with more veneration than understanding of their true import and regarded them as the divine charter of their faith. Having been set up as a scripture of divine authorship, the compilation of sacred hymns became the starting point of mysticism, and was encroached upon and enlarged from time to time. The very first addition that was made owes its origin to some evil influence* for all concerned;
The following account of this inhuman innovation is to be construed with the aid of the Jaina Puranas. In the reign of râjá Vasu, long long ago, there arose a dispute between one Nâ rada and his co-pupil, Parbat, as to the true meaning of the word aja which denoted an object employed for the worship of Gods. The word now means both grains of rice more than three years old which cannot take root again as well as a he-goat. Parbat, who had probably acquired a taste for flesh, maintained that the word meant only a he-goat, while Nârada defended the old significance. Parbat was defeated by the force of public opinion, the sanctity of long established custom and the argument of his adversary, but he appealed to the rajá, who also happened to be a pupil of his father. To win over the rája to the side of Parbat, the latter's mother secretly visited him at the palace, demanded the unpaid gurudakshina (teacher's remuneration or fee), due to her husband, and begged him to allow her to name the boon. Vasu agreed, little thinking what would be asked of him, and gave his word. The mother of Parbat then told him that he should decide the issue in favour of her son;