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The Unknown Pilgrims
age, of the places mentioned and of the inner life of the sādhvis of which she herself has experience. Sadhvi Sajjana did not know Sādhvi Punya personally, but from the testimonies of other sādhvis and of the śrāvakas and śrāvikās who did and thanks to her belonging to the same gaccha, she succeeds in conveying a life-like portrait of her heroine, while at the same time she adds here and there her own reflections which are by no means lacking in interest.
In this life we find a unity, a determination, a tenacious will directed from the earliest age towards an ideal to be pursued, a deep insight into her own milieu, coupled with a desire to escape from obscurantist orthodoxy and to remedy the evils that stem therefrom. It is not possible to single out the different aspects which go to make up the unity apparent within this life; everything hangs together. Moreover, the biography does not adhere to a well-defined pattern; its narration follows the facts, the events, a certain internal order, the one, in fact, that constitutes the life of the sādhvis. From the whole we can pick out certain characteristics that highlight Sadhvi Punya for us as Daughter of the Desert, a fervent Sādhvi, a Guruņi and Pioneer.
A Daugter of the Desert 11
Pannākumāri, so it seemed, began to show very early on an attraction for spiritual things and even a predilection for vairāgya. In her childhood, instead of playing at ordinary games with her companions, she led them to imitate the sādhvis whom she had encountered and thus they played at gocari or at delivering pravacanas. Pannā willingly accompanied her mother to the temple and in her company lcarned the rudiments of sämáyika and pratikramana. During this same period a śrāvaka exerted a powerful influence upon her, which further strengthened these initial impulses. This śrāvakas was a palmist. After studying the lines on Pannā's hand, he predicted that she would become a famous and influential sădhvi. Thereafter he taught her the elements of the doctrine, explaining to her that this saṁsāra is merely misery and suffering and that earthly enjoyments lead to nāraka, the world below. The state of existence
11 Cf. Sajjana, 1960, chs. 9-16
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