Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 115

86
is well proclaimed by all the Lord Jinas. One who embraces it would not sink in the ocean of existence. It is tenfold: 118 self-control, truthfulness, purity, chastity, poverty, austerities, forbearance, humility, sincerity, and freedom from greed. From the power of dharma, the kalpa-tree, et cetera, grant what is desired. They would not even be within the sphere of persons endowed with wrong dharma. Dharma, very tender, the sole brother, always near at hand, protects a creature falling into this boundless ocean of calamities. The fact that the ocean does not overflow the earth and that the cloud makes the earth expand, this certainly is the power of dharma, nothing else. Fire does not burn horizontally; wind does not blow vertically. The incomprehensible power of dharma is the cause of that. That the earth stands without support, without a prop, supporting everything, is caused by nothing else but dharma. The sun and moon shine for the benefit of all in this world from the teaching of dharma. Dharma is the brother of the brotherless, the friend of the friendless, the lord of the lordless, alone devoted to all. Dharma saves creatures from falling into hell and Pātāla. Dharma offers the same unequaled power of the omniscient.
This tenfold dharma is not regarded by people with wrong-belief. If any of it has been taught (by them) anywhere, that is just a play of words, nothing more. The meaning of the Principles dances about constantly in the speech, the mind, and also in the action of all whoever share the doctrine of the Jina. Brahmans, their intellects subjected to the teaching of the Vedas, do not know really a particle of the jewel of dharma.
CHAPTER TWO
How is there any dharma in sacrificers who cause destruction of life, making sacrifices such as the cowsacrifice, human-sacrifice, horse-sacrifice, et cetera ? What dharma is there in those who created the Purāņas, who relate subject-matter incredible, untrue, and contradictory?
118 310. Cf. I, n. 38 and II, p. 274.