________________
264
Sumati-Jñāna
<< Human life is like an ephemeral meteor. When I think of how the duties of marriage, desire, the army, relatives, royal consecration, devotion to my offspring, have entangled my mind, have I destroyed my shame? Craziness, isn't it? Stupidity, isn't it? (III, 27)
Beauty, new tastes, this body, this enjoyment, this kingship, this life, is like the glitter of water, like bubbles, like foam, like writing on water, like the rainbow, like lightning, When I know this, what else should I think of? >> (III, 30)
And just as the Sun was blazing on the Eastern Mountain, in order to illuminate the Tirthankara, eight gods from the Brahma-world: Sarasvata, Aditya, Vahni, Varuņa, Gardatōya, Tuşitatōya, Anvyābādha and Arista, came, worshipped Ajita the Savior's feet with fragrant raw rice mixed with turmeric and said; (III, 31)
<<God, you are a Tīrthankara. Is it right for you to remain stuck in the afflictions of the illusion of sovereignity, like an ordinary man? (III, 32)
You are in your last life. Make an end to all desire, defeat the five senses, and quickly attain the five kalyānas3 and ultimate liberation! >> (III, 33)
And what they said went right to his heart. He said, << Let it be so! >>, he the Jina lord, with the indefatigability of the moon. (III, 36)
He stripped off his clothes, abandoned ointments, took off all his ornaments: the emancipation of the wise!, and looked like the Sun shedding a red cloud. (III, 51)
Mud became his ointments, the sky his divine clothes, the garland of virtues his ornaments, and so the lord of sages was ready to please the lady of final liberation. (IV, 2)
Unattached like the wind, firm as the golden mountain, deep as the ocean, the lord of sages was like the path of clouds: Casting off the three lazinesses, adorned with purity of the three yogas' and the 3 gems, Ajita the yogi stood motionless in meditation. (IV, 3)
Elephants and lions, snakes and mongooses, antelopes and tigers forgot their enmity, and were peaceful at the side of Ajita-nātha. (IV, 4)
The trees of the forest offered flowers from their hands which were branches for the lotus-feet of the lord of sages; the lakes, with their arms which were waves, made drops moved by the wind, wash his flower-feet. (IV, 5)
Then he performed fierce austerities for twelve years, and went to a fit place, hidden from the story of the Jina-kalpa, and undertook the meditation of silence, and through this pure meditation, the obstacles of knowledge, the obstacles of power, and all obstructions became destroyed in the month of Pusya, at midday, on the eleventh day of the śukla-paksa, under the asterism of Rōhiņī. And at that time, like a fire rising in a forest, like the Sun rising on the Eastern Mountain, like the submarine fire rising in the ocean, the splendid karmaburning kaivalya-jñāna, beneficient to all the beings of the three worlds, rose in Ajita the Tīrthankara. (IV, 6)
Victory to the Jina lord, shining like a golden cloud!
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
