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XXXI. Praise of the Lord Mahavira
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167
desires even without a vessel to overleap the ocean, and as one having heard of the moon's rays as consisting of ambrosia desires to drink them with a cup, etc., and both these things cannot possibly be effected; so also a wish to depict in entirety Your Worship's mastery of statements is similar to an engagernent upon an impossible attempt; to say nothing of making a discrimination in entirety of Thy powers of statement, even a desire with reference thereto is great rashness. That is the sense-meaning.
Or else, 'from the root lagh in the sense of drying up'), is 'we might dry up' (langhema), the ocean, by agility, meaning great speed; while, if langhi is used in the sense of crossing', the Active form is rare; and the Middle termination is not regular'. - And here that, in 'we hope', although the subject is avoidance of conceit, the teacher has used of himself the plural, signifies as follows: 'there are in the world many laudators, like me of weak intelligence', so that by the mere plural no egoism truly on the part of the laudator, a leader, is to be suspected. On the contrary, an erecting of a flag on the temple of his absence of presumption should be the conclusion. This is meaning of the verse.
In these 31 verses the metre is Upajāti. (240)
) Hemacandra's Dhūtu-päryāyana, bhvādi 98 (M. L.): but, despite this evidence from H's own grammatical work, this alternative meaning is rendered improbable by the 'with agility in the verse.
In the expression vahema candrad yuti the last line of this verse XXXI alludes by a pen to the name of the author, Hemacandra. In his other Thirty-two', the A yoga-vyavacchedikā, at a corresponding point, a similar 'seal-signature may be seen.
