Book Title: Tattvartha Sutra
Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi, K K Dixit
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Page 307
________________ 134 Answer By saying that they are ever there what is meant is that they are there without cessation. Thus as a result of a manifestation of the karmas designated gati-, jāti-, śarīra-, and angopanga-nāma the phenomena like leśyā etc. obtaining in a hellish birth remain inauspicious throughout life-that is to say, not even for a moment do they undergo a change nor do they ever turn auspicious. 3. TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA From the very nature of its location a hell is characterized by a terrible pain of heat and cold, but still more terrible is the pain of hunger and thirst. Thus so acute is the pain of hunger that it does not subside even when the person concerned, behaving like fire, consumes everything whatsoever; on the contrary, the act only results in a further intensification of the fire of hunger. Similarly, the pain of thirst is so acute that no satisfaction is reached however much be the quantity of water gulped down. Besides the pain of this nature a great one results to the hellish beings from their mutual animosity and beating up. For just as a crow and an owl, a snake and a mongoose are bornenemies, so also are the hellish beings born-enemies to one another. That is why as soon as they see one another they quarrel like dogs, bite one another and burn with anger. Hence it is said about them that they suffer from the pain caused to each other by each other. 4. The hellish beings are understood to suffer from three types of painful tactile feeling. Of these, that owing to the very nature of their residing place and that caused to each other by each other have already been described. The third type is that owing to an extremely acute demerit. The first two types are common to all the seven hellish grounds, but the third is found only in the first three of them. For it is only in them that the paramādhārmikas (lit. the extremely demeritorious ones) are found. The paramādhārmikas are such a species of asura-gods as are extremely cruel by nature and ever engaged in sinful activities. There are fifteen subspecies of them like amba, ambarīṣa etc. By their very nature they are so cruel and frivolous, that they find pleasure in inflicting pain on others. Hence it is that they make the hellish beings miserable through striking them Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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