Risabha Deva

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 72

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RISABHA DEVA unknown cause, so that the Earth is brought scorchingly near to the Sun for the space of 49 days after which it tilts up in the other direction, and is drawn nearer to the Moon for a similar period of time. Then all the terrible phenomena are likely to occur as described in the prophecy.
As regards the snatching away of the morsel of food by the last king from the hand of the last Saint, its explanation map be sought in the fact that cooked food shall have become scarce long long before the end of the panchama kāla. Perhaps the influence of the advancing fiery comet will be reinforced by the drying up of the stamina of the earth in consequence of the constant tapping to which it is being subjected, in one form and another, so that vegetation shall begin to dry up, fuel shall become scarce, and cooked food will become a rare delicacy many hundreds of years before the end of the age; the only living pious householder shall have procured the last bundle of chips to prepare the last meal for the Saint and the Nun! Law and order will have virtually disappeared long before this time, and the last king will probably be no more than a mere powerful bully, He will be attracted by the sight of the smoke from the householder's kitchen and will rush to help himself to cooked food, the greatest of delicacies at the time. He will arrive just in time to be able to snatch the first morsel from the hand of the Saint. The devas, who do not usually interfere in human affairs, will be unable to tolerate such an insult to Saint