Book Title: Some Jaina Canonical Sutras
Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

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Page 106
________________ 92 SOME JAINA CANONICAL SOTRAS for it will change into nectar; but nectar taken at the behest of an giyattha will change into poison. One should rather live with a snake than with an giyatthu. Que who breaks his oath is to be shunned. The first example of an agiyuttha is the monk Īsara. As the first Tirthakura goes into Nirvāna, the gods, in order to witness the event, appear on the earth. On that occasion the memory of his previous existences flashes through the mind of oue of the spectators; he becomes a monk and attains Prutyekubuddhahool. Isara asks this Pratyekubuddhu about his origin, etc., and the latter gives him detailed information, but Isara does not believe him. The Prutyekubuddha seeks out the Jina and becomes il gunadhara under him. When after the Jina's death he begins to expound the canon, it strikes him that the theory that he who injure's an earthly being is a bad monk, is unfeasible. But he at once recognizes this thought to be a great sin and undertakes il fast and again goes to that Pratyekubuddha. 'The latter holds that on no account should earthly and other beings be injured. But Isara is again of a different opinion, thinking how the Pratyckubuddha holds such a view when he himself eats food that is prepared in fire and does not at all live without water. He leaves him and decides to expound the Dharma himself. He then (xpires. The Guccho. of Bhadda (onsisting of 500 monks and 1,200 muns, has the practice of taking only water instead of the fourth meal. Nun Rajjā falls ill for taking water. Some nuns thereupon resolve not to confine themselves to water only. Only one of them (onsiders a previous karman to be the cause of her malady. At this perception she attains Kerulu knowledge. King Jambidādima and his queen Siriya get, after many sons, the longed for daughter named Lakkhaņādevī. Her husband dies shortly after marriage. The young widłow is in great anguish. About this time a Tirthakura comes to the country, and the king with all this relations gets converted to his doctrine. When alone the nun Lakkhaņādevi once watches with envy the amorous sports of the birds and comes to regret her vow of chastity. Being conscious of her sin, she wants to confess and do penance, although through her confession she exposes herself and her people. This thought at last gets the upper hand. Thereupon under pretence of acting in the interest of someone, she makes enquiries about the measure of the penance to be performed in purification of her sin and actually performs it. But her sin is not destroyed thereby. She only hastens the punishment for her penance. In the next existence she is Khandotthā, the maid of a famous hetaira whom, however, Khandotthā far excels

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