________________
CHAPTER THREE
131
support. Similarly, the second ground stands supported by its own ring of dense ocean, this ring stands supported by the related ring of dense air, the dense air stands supported by the below lying ring of rarefied air, the rarefied air stands supported by the below lying ākāśa; this ākāśa is self-supported. The same order obtains in the case of each ground upto the seventh and of the ring of dense ocean etc, pertaining to it.
Even if the further down a ground is situated the less thick it is, the length and breadth of a below lying ground are greater than those of an above lying one. That is why their collective shape has been likened to that of a chatrātichatra (i.e. an umbrella-over-umbrella series)—that is, a shape where extension is found to be greater as one looks further downwards. 1.
In each of the seven grounds barring an uppermost strip and a lowermost strip of 1000 yojanas each the entire remaining thickness has hellish residing places (i.e. hells) situated within it; thus for example in the case of ratnaprabhā the total thickness of 180,000 yojanas minus an upper strip and a lower strip of 1000 yojanas each amounts to a thickness of 178,000 yojanas and it is within this that hells are situated. The same consideration applies to the remaining grounds upto the seventh. The hells bear names like raurava (lit. terrifying), raudra (lit. frightening), ghātana (lit. killing), socana (lit. worrying) etc. which are fearsome even to hear. Beginning from the hellish residing place named sīmantaka situated in ratnaprabhā and lasting upto that named apratisthāna situated in mahātamahprabhā all the hellish residing places are with a floor akin to diamond-knife. They are not all similar in shape; for some of them are circular, some triangular, some looking like a cooking vessel, some looking like an iron jar—they thus being of mutually different shapes. The prastaras or strata which are like storeys of a multistoreyed building—are to be counted as follows: thirteen in ratnaprabhā, eleven in śarkarāprabhā and similarly decreasing by two in each groundso that there is only one prastara in the seventh ground mahātamaḥprabhā. It is in these prastaras that hells are situated.
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
