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JAINISM
tions and indulging in the worst vices. Hence the soul is compelled to migrate from birth to birth, entering even into the kingdom of the beasts and passing through the spheres of the sufferings of hell. Therefore, I shall waste no more of my years in the vain pursuits of pleasure."
The future Tīrthankara thereupon entered the "Twelve Meditations" and perceived that the chain of existences is without beginning, as well as painful and impure, and that the self is its own only friend. The thrones of all the Indras trembled in the heavens, and the gods descended to celebrate the Third Kalyāya: “tlie salutary event of the Renunciation" (sannyāsakalana). They addi essed themselves to the young savior, "The world,” they said, "sleeps heavily, enveloped in a cloud of illusion. This is the sleep that will not be dispelled except by the clarion-call of your teaching. You, the Enlightened, the waker of the infatuated soul, are the Savior, the great Sun before whom the lamplike words of mere gods, such as ourselves, are insignificant. You are to do now what you have come to do: namely, assume the vows, annihilate the karma-foe, dispel the darkness of unknowing, and open the road 10 bliss." They scattered heavenly flowers at his feet.
Four Indras descended, together with their retinues; celestial trumpets blew; the nymphs of heaven began to sing and dance; deitics cried out, “Victory to the Lord!" and the Indra of the Sudharma-heaven conducted Pārýva to a throne, which had miraculously appeared. Just as a king, at the culminating moment of the ceremonial of the "King's Quickening” (rājasūya), is consecrated by an aspersion of water, so was Pārśva by an elixir from the divine Milky Ocean, which was poured from a pitcher of gold. His body being then adorned with celestial ornaments, he returned to his parents to take his leave of them, and he consoled them with gentle words. The gods thereafter conducted him in a heavenly palanquin to the forest. The company halted beneath a certain tree, and Părśva, de
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| SR No. | 007309 |
| Book Title | Philosophies of India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell |
| Publisher | Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd |
| Publication Year | 1953 |
| Total Pages | 709 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 34 MB |