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APPENDIX NO. 3
Tri-daṣṭhi Śalākā Puruṣa 63 Pre-eminently Spiritual Persons
According to Jaina Hagiology, 24 Tirthankaras, 12 Cakravartins, 9 Vasudevas, 9 Bala devas, and 9 Prati-vasudevas are produced during each Utsarpiņi and Avasarpiņi era. This rule is current from time immemorial and the same number of eminently spiritual persons will also be born during each cycle in future. They are sixty-three for each era, and are called त्रिषष्ठिशलाकापुरुष Triṣasthi Salākā Puruśāh sixty-three spiritually eminent persons. All of them are not saints (sādhus) but they are spiritually eminent. They attain a Mokṣa (Final Emancipation) either in the same Bhava or in future Bhavas.
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Tirthankaras (24). The soul of a Tirthankara adores वीशस्थानकपद Visasthānaka pada - A series of twenty exalted dignitaries-during the third bhava previous to the bhava in which He is born as a Tirthankara and acquires for himself तिर्थकर नामकर्म (Tirthankara Nāma Karma)— -one of the most excellent forms of gua Punya Karma. In case, there is no bondage of an age-limit of Naraka gati (state of a denizen of hell) before the acquisition of Tirthankara Nāma Karma, he is born as a god after having done a bondage for déva-gati (the state of a god) during his highly religious life, and on the completion of his age-limit as a god, he is finally born during his life as a Tīrthankara, as a buman being with Avadhi Jnāna (Visual Knowledge). Or, if there is already a bondage for Naraka gati [ state of a denizen of hell] and the bondage of Tirthankara Nāma Karma happens later on during his highly religious life, he is born in Naraka gati and on the completion of his age-limit as a Nāraka, he is finally born during his life as a Tirthankara, as a human being with Avadhi Jnana. As a consequence of the extreme excellence of the Tirthankara Nama Karma, he enjoys the pros. perity of a kingdom and having renounced all pleasures, he adopts ascetic life and after the total annihilation of the four aft
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