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NATURE OF PAIN AND SUFFERING OF INFERNAL BEINGS 87
but they actually attain disfigured or deformed bodies only. They desire to do things which promote happiness, but they commit things which bring about pain and suffering alone. Lower and lower down these dispositions become worse and worse.
Is distress caused to infernal beings by heat and cold alone? Or are there other sources of suffering and torment ?
परस्परोदीरितदुःखाः
Parasparodiritaduḥkhāḥ 4. They cause pain and suffering to one another.
How do they cause pain and suffering to one another? They are able to foresee the cause of pain and suffering by. their wrong clairvoyance inherited from birth and suffer from anguish. And when they come close to one another, their anger develops into a rage. They recollect their past lives and are actuated by intense animosity. They begin to strike at one another like dogs and jackals. By their powers of changing forms they make weapons such as sword, hatchet, axe, spear, pike, javelin, crowbar, and others, and with these and their hands, feet and teeth, they indulge in cutting, splitting, paring and biting and cause intense pain and suffering to one another.
Are these alone the causes of pain, or are there any others also ? :
संक्लिष्टासुरोदीरितदुःखाश्च प्राक्चतुर्थ्याः Sanklişțāsurodiritaduḥkhāśca prākcaturthyāḥ (5) 5. Pain is also caused by the incitement of malevolent asurakumāras prior to the fourth earth.
1 It is suggested that there is no reference in this sentence in the original to the bodies of infernal beings, as these have been mentioned already in the sutra. The disparity between intentions and deeds is brought out here. Hence the appropriate rendering suggested is as follows. "The infernal beings intend to do good deeds, but they actually commit only wicked deeds." This interpretation is also in conformity with the commentary of Rajavārtlika of Bhatta Akalanka Deva, which is given here for reference. “The infernal beings intend to do good, but they commit only wicked deeds. Their minds are subjugated by their pain and suffering, and they wish to dispel pain and suffering. But they pave the way only for greater suffering."
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