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Sugandha: Sweet Fragrance
599
who were visiting the upāśraya.50 When this fast-period was coming to an end, she asked for and received permission to continue until the forty-fifth day. She was showing no fatigue and was even going from place to place in the town for the vandana to the ācārya and munis. The forty-sixth day in the morning, she consented to take a little liquid nourishment. During the day she seemed well and was already proposing to undertake an even longer fast during the next cāturmäsya. Then all of a sudden, towards the end of the afternoon, she fell ill and expressed a desire to see the ācārya, and, while the sādhvis, realising the seriousness of her condition, were singing the Namaskāra-mantra, she peacefully passed away. 51
The news spread rapidly; śrāvakas, śrāvikās and very many others made their way to the upāśaya to have the darśana of Sadhvi Candrayśā. Observing the pressure of the throngs, some students took it upon themselves to ensure orderliness. The money-offerings given in her memory were distributed to the poor. The next day, at half-past twelve, an endless procession followed her body. The cortege reached its destination at a distance of several kilometres from the upāśraya towards five o'clock. The civil authorities of Madrās had put at the samgha's disposal fisteen vehicles to transport mourners and wood for the cremation and had deputed for the occasion four hundred policemen who, together with the six hundred volunteers, maintained good order. Reporters from the better-known daily newspapers and photographers were also in attendance. It was truly an event in which the whole town participated.
Then the body which Sadhvi Candrayaśā had mastered and purified with the whole of her energy in order to set free from it the atman, that body which was now the object of so much veneration, was placed on the pyre of sandal-wood. The quantity of this precious wood, presented as a gift by the śrāvakas, was such - about three tons in weight, they say - that the fire burned all night long, illumining the whole area and diffusing the sweet fragrance of sandal-wood.
50 Ibid., p. 13.
51 Ibid., p. 15.
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