________________
102
THE HUMAN REGIONS
How ? From the interpretation. The dimensions of Himavan etc. in half of Puşkara continent are double as those of Himavan etc. in Dhātakikhanda. The names are the same. Similarly, there are two mountains in the shape of arrows as well as two Merus as in the other continent. In the place of the jambū tree there is the puşkara tree with its attendant trees. Hence the name Puşkaradvipa is established. Now why is it called Puşkarārdha ? It has been divided into two halves by the mountain range of Mānuşottara. Hence it is called Puşkarārdha.
Why is it stated that there are two Himavan mountains etc. in Puşkarārdha and not in the entire Puşkaradvipa ?
प्राड्यानुषोत्तरान्मनुष्याः । Prānmānuşottarānmanusyāḥ
(35) 35. (There are) buman beings up to Mānuşottara.
Just in the middle of Puşkaradvipa there is the mountain chain of Mānuşottara in the form of a circle (running all around the continent). Human beings are found only within this mountain chain and not beyond it. Hence there is no division into regions beyond it. Neither vidyādharas nor ascetics of extraordinary attainments go at any time beyond this line, except those who take birth outside the human region and those who practise samudghāta'. Hence the name is a significant one. Thus human beings reside in the two and a half continents commencing from Jambūdvipa and in the two oceans.
1 Except in the three instances mentioned below, human beings are not found otherwise outside the human region.
1. The human being, who is to be born after death outside the human region (not, of course, as a human being), effects the exit of the spatial units of his soul beyond the human region, just at the time of transit before his death.
2. The being (not, of course, a human being) living beyond the mountain range of Mănuşottara, who is to be reborn as a human being after death, stays outside the human region until the time of entry into the human region just before death.
3. Kevali-samudghāla is emanation of the spatial units of the omniscient soul from his body without wholly discarding the body, for the purpose of levelling down the duration of the other three non-destructive karmas to that of the age-karma, by filling up the entire universe and contracting back to the size of the body in eight instants, just prior to attaining liberation.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
