________________
301
intelligent Sālibhadra Muni who had great abhorrence of worldly enjoyments, began to meditate on the strangeness of events happening daily in this world, with a highly poble mind. He thought :-Ah! A number of strange events of various kinds created by Karmas, do happen in this world. Ah! what about my life as an ignorant villager without a knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, during my previous blava, and what about my life as a leading citizen which is an embodiment of greatness and which is emblem of doing things at the right moment. 1. During my previous life, I was a servant even of brutes-a status full of numerous miseries, but during this life, I became a person who looked down upon a king as a marketable grocery material. 2. During my previous life, I had not an old, torn, and sulficient piece of cloth to cover my body but now during this life, I gave sixteen ratna-kambala-high class woollen shawls each costing one hundred and twenty-five thousand rupees-to my thirty-two wives who dividing each shawl into two pieces, used them for cleaning their feet, and, then, threw them away into a cesspool. 3. During my previous life, I did not have any ornament even of silver for my body, but during this life I was daily throwing away, like flower garlands, gold ornaments beset with various kinds of precious stones and jewels, as if they had no value. 4. During my previous life no silver coin touched my hand but during this life, I have not even inquired about heaps of gold mohars and diamo. nds etc. Ah ! Such is diversity of acting on the stage of this world I Ah! On the stage of this worldly existence, Moha (Infa. tuation) under the supreme influence of individual Karmas, ma kes all the living beings, dance in accordance with the various actings they are forced to perform. None can escape this ordeal except the fortunate person wito is familiar with the essential meanings of the Aganas ( Scriptures of the Jinésvaras. Let me, therefore, conquer by extremely powerful energy and the might of successful action, the terrible wrestler Mola, who has mis-guided the whole world, and let me win the Banner of
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
