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TRANSLATION gods, you must be knowing my past as well as future; as also, how I got, achieved and came to possess this divine glory, lustre, splendour and prowess. I, therefore, wish to display with great respect unto you, O Beloved of the gods, and also unto the Nirgrantha ascetics like Gautama and others, the celestial Thirty-two types. of dances, accompanied by the heavenly pomp, glory, lustre and prowess.”
[ Sūtra 23] Then the Venerable Monk Mabāvīra, being thus addressed by the God Sūryābha, did neither pay any heed to his words, nor did he acknowledge them but merely remained silent. Then the God Sūryābha said to the Lord Mabāvira, for the second time, as follows:- O Revered Sir ! you know everything...upto... I wish to display-and with these words he went round the Lord labāvīra three times, bowed down and paidi his respects to him; he then went to the north-eastern direction and created a magic physical mutation. He then made emanate from his body a rod, numerous yojanas in length...discarding the gross particles and retainicg only the fine ones...; for the second time he created a very level ground by means of his transformed magic ( supernatural) body; (the ground was as even and straight) as the surface of a drum...upto the touch of gems; exactly in the middle of that level piece of ground, he created an audience ball (or a theatre), supported by many hundreds of pillars, [ Page 94 1...the typical description... then created the floor which was very even; also created the ceiling, stadium (or gallery) and also a jewelled platform. On that platform, he also created a throne...around which there were suspended
wreaths of flowers. Then the god Sūryābha saluted the Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat www.umaragyanbhandar.com
