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12. A CONTROVERSIAL DIALOGUE
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Vişņu again is just a Kşatriya, and the Sun has characteristics similar to those of the other planets. If those two are gods leading men to salvation, why is it that the Ksatriya Prthu and the moon, too, are not called gods?'
अशेषमेतद्वपुषा बिभर्ति दशावतारेण स वर्तते वा।
शिलाप्लवादप्यतिविस्मयाह मातः कथं संगतिमझातीदम् ॥ Vişnu is said to sustain the entire universe within his body, and described also as existing in ten different Incarnations. This is far more astonishing than the floating of a stone on water. How can it, mother, be reconciled with facts ?'
स्वयं स कुष्ठी पदयोः किलार्कः परेषु रोगार्तिहरश्च चित्रम् ।
अजा परेषां विनिहन्ति वातं स्वयं तु वातेन हि सा म्रियेत ॥ * It is strange that the Sun should be able to exterminate the suffering of others caused by disease, himself stricken with leprosy in the feet! (On the same principle) a she-goat, who (with her flesh) cures the gout of others, would herself die of gout!
Speaking of the Arhats, the omniscient world-teachers worshipped by the Jainas as divine beings, Yasodhara explains that the virtues of the Arhat are known from the Scripture composed by himself. The chain
ed Arhats and Scriptures is without beginning or end, like the cycle of creation, existence and destruction, or that of the seasons: winter, summer and the rains. Further, it is not absurd to hold that just as there are past, present and future kings, conversant with the three worlds, similarly there are present and future Aptas or Arhats; and plurality of this sort is surely found also in other faiths.
सर्गस्थितिप्रत्यवहारवृत्तेहिमातपाम्भःसमयस्थितेर्वा । माद्यन्तभावोऽस्ति यथा न लोके तथैव मुक्तागममालिकायाः ॥ war facufaa wafa i 3147971: *AT: feratai: 1
यथा तथाप्ता यदि को विरुद्धो बहुस्वमन्यत्र च बाढमस्ति ॥ Yasodhara's mother, on hearing these words, says to herself that the time is gone when her son could be compelled to carry out her wishes by argument or threat or even a box in the ear. Addressing herself to her son, she extols his wisdom and learning, and appeals to him again to offer animal sacrifices to the tutelary goddess for counteracting the effect of the evil dream and preserving his own life. After citing some instances of sages and others who are known to have killed various living creatures for their own good,' she asserts that a king, pure in his motives, can never incur any sin, just as lotus leaves cannot be drenched with water or the sky bedaubed with mud. She then declares thus:
विषं विषस्यौषधमग्निरग्नेरियं प्रसिद्धिर्महती यथैव । पुण्याय हिंसापि भवेत्तथैव सर्वत्र हे पुत्र न षढलानि ॥
softare THT TI
1 TTI: Fakt Hafra #T:, Ta 2 See Chapter XVII.
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