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The Unknown Pilgrims
- Dravya-stris or female bodies cannot be liberated, for, because women wear clothing their self-mastery is not perfect,their vows therefore are also only imperfectly and partially fulfilled and they can only succeed in reaching some of the guṇasthānas.36
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However, there are certain cases in which a person with a dravya-puruşa, a man's body, may possess the bhāva-veda of a woman, that is to say, his inner disposition is that of a woman. Now such a person may well pass through the fourteen guṇasthānas and be liberated, thanks to his male body, while in the opposite case, that of a person possessing a dravya-stri, a woman's body, and a man's bhava-veda, she will only reach the fifth guṇasthāna and will not be liberated in her present life. However, if she has, with this woman's body, embraced the ascetic life and followed the path of the dharma, she will be reborn with a man's body, will go in her next life to a period of enjoyment with the gods, then, returning to the earth in a man's body and practising asceticism, will thereafter be speedily liberate .37
3. The reflections of Śri Prabhācandra 38
- Although limited in content, they seek to vindicate themselves by proffering certain explanations:
- If one considers prakarsa, excellence, superiority, preeminence, to be necessary for reaching Liberation, one can say
36 Cf. Jñānamati, ibid., based upon the Dhavalā I, 1, 93, a text of Virasena, IXth c.; the Dhavala is a very claborate commentary on the Satkhaṇḍāgama, the most ancient of the Digambara texts and one of the two recognised as Āgamas, the 2nd being the Kaṣayaprabhṛta; cf. P 149 ff.
37 Cf. Jñānamati, ibid., PP.
63-64.
38
A Digambara muni of the Xth-XIth c., author of several works including the Prameyakamalamārttaṇḍa, a text of logic thought to have been written at Dhārā in Madhya Pradeśa, (JSK III, pp. 139-140), of which one part, several pp. in length, is entitled "Strimukti-vicāra" 'upon which we are here drawing, however giving only the main ideas.
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