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THE MAXIMUM LIFETIME OF INFERNAL BEINGS
Asura name karma is a division of the name karma of celestial state. Owing to the rise of this karma, they torment others. Hence they are called asuras or demons. Owing to evil thoughts experienced by them in their previous births, they have acquired demerit. And on account of it they are actuated by malevolence continually. Hence they are called malevolent asuras. The attributive ‘malevolent' indicates that all asuras do not cause pain. But only some asuras such as ambābarisas cause pain to the infernal beings. The limit is indicated by 'prior to the fourth'. It is intended to point out that the wicked asuras cause pain only in the first three infernal regions. Ca is intended to include the causes of pain mentioned in the previous sutras. They cause pain by making others drink molten iron, embrace red-hot iron pillars, and ascend and descend the tree with sharp thornst. They also strike others with bammers, cut them with hatchets and knives, sprinkle boiling oil on them, fry them in an iron vessel, parch them in an oven, drown them in the river Vaitarani in hell and crush them in the oil press. Though their bodies are cut and rent asunder, they do not meet with premature death. For their lifetime cannot be cut short. If so let their span of life be mentioned.
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गरोपमा सत्वानां परा स्थितिः · Teşvekatri saptadaśasaptadaśadvāvimšatitrayastrimsatsagaropamā sattvānām parā sthitiņ
(6) 6. In these infernal regions the maximum duration of life of the infernal beings is one, three, seven, ten, seventeen, twenty-two and thirty-three sāgaropamas.
Respectively' is supplied. With regard to these regions one, three, etc. sāgaropamas are taken respectively. In Ratnaprabhā the maximum lifetime is one sāgaropama, in sarkarā prabhā three, in Vālukāprabhā seven, in Pankaprabhā ten, in Dhūmaprabhā seventeen, in Tamaḥ prabhā twenty-two and in Mahātamaḥprabhā thirty-three sāgaropamas. Parā means maximum.
1 Kutaśālmali: artificial silk-cotton tree.
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