World Of Jainism

Author(s): Vishwanath Pandey
Publisher: Vishwanath Pandey

Page 35

THE WORLD OF JAINISM
infantry, thirtytwo thousands of semi-divine body-guards, ninety-six thousands of queens, three crores of cows, nine treasures, etc. is amazing. He can have his desires fulfilled at any time and place through many other treasures which are in his possession. He can have any food and fragrance by merely wishing. He wills that the sword be present and the sword is present. He wishes anything and it is present. Five miraculous occurrences take place in the case of one who has offered food which confirms to the standard prescribed to an ideal monk (op, cit. 257). Plague, epidemic, famine and accidental death are kept at a distance if the birds called Kinjalka happen to stay in the vicinity. (Arahanakahakosa, p. 55). A foulsmelling body becomes scented in a moment by virtue of the mystical formulae and one can attain the power to fly in the air in lieu of the magical spell which he has come to possess (op. cit. p. 95). By special powers acquired through penances and hard austerties, one could assume a form, big or small as he liked (op. cit. p. 120). A self-controlled monk could tame hunting hound and turn poisonous arrows into flowers (op. cit. 157). A person who has been thrown into the lake in the midst of ferocious aquatic animals living in the lake could be saved simply through miraculous power achieved by practising some Vows (op. cit. p. 184). Gems and jewels were showered by the heavenly powers when an ideal monk was honoured with innocent alms (op. cit. p. 228). By reciting the Bhaktamara stotra, incurable diseases were cured, a conflagration was quelled, a raging ocean was brought to book, a dangerous storm was stopped, beasts of prey were made lowly like lambs, a poor man got plenty of money, obstacles were warded off and one was saved from the snake-bite. A monk's very sight made one recollect his previous lives. A desire-yielding tree fulfilled wishes. Many difficult works were accomplished through the agency of gods. Goddesses waited upon the mothers of the revered Jinendras whose birth was celebrated by the lord of gods, descended from the heayn specially for that purpose and bathed the lord with the water of the milky ocean on the mountain, Sumeru; they arranged dances of the goddesses befitting the auspicious occasion where eulogies were sung by the Gandharvas. Immediately after a Tirthankara was born, the conches blew automatically in the houses of the Bhavanpati gods, drums beat in those of the Vyantara gods, a lion's roar issued in those of the Jyotisi gods, and the gongs rang in the residences of the Kalpavasis (Punyas'ravakathakosa, p. 335). In order to fully percieve and enjoy the extraordinary handsomeness of the Tirthamkara when he is born, Indra developes his two eyes into thousand and drinks deep his charm and grace and bathes his body enthroned on a gem-bedecked seat with ene thousand luge pitchers filled with water of the milky ocean. When a Tirthamkara is born, fourteen wonders are