{"collection":"Jainism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jai/sbe45/sbe4509.htm","path":"jai/sbe45/sbe4509.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/jai/sbe45/sbe4509.htm","text":"Jaina Sutras, Part II (SBE45), tr. by Hermann Jacobi, [1895]\nAs somebody, to provide for (the arrival of) a guest, brings up a young ram, gives it rice and gram 3, and brings it up in his yard; (1)\nThen when it is grown up and big, fat and of a large belly, fattened and of a plump body, it is ready for the guest. (2)\nAs long as no guest comes, the poor (animal) lives; but as soon as a guest arrives, its head is cut off, and it is eaten. (3)\nAs this ram is well treated for the sake of\na guest, even so an ignorant, great sinner longs (as it were) for life in hell. (4)\nAn ignorant man kills, tells lies, robs on the highway, steals foreign goods, deceives, (always thinking of some one) whom he could plunder, the villain. (5)\nHe is desirous of women and pleasures, he enters on undertakings and business, drinks liquor, eats meat, becomes strong, a subduer of foes. (6)\nHe eats crisp goats\u2019 meat, his belly grows, and his veins swell with blood--but he gains nothing but life in hell, just as the ram is only fed to be killed for the sake of a guest. (7)\nAfter having enjoyed pleasant seats, beds, carriages, riches, and pleasures, after having squandered his wealth which he had so much trouble in gaining, and after having committed many sins, he will, under the burden of his Karman, and believing only in the visible world, be grieved in the hour of death like the ram 1 at the arrival of a guest. (8, 9)\nThen the sinner who has been killing living beings, at the end of his life falls from his state 2, and against his will he goes to the world of the Asuras, to the dark place. (10)\nAs a man for the sake of one K\u00e2kin\u00ee 3 (risks and) loses a thousand (K\u00e2rsh\u00e2panas), or as the king lost his kingdom (and life) by eating a mango-fruit which he was strictly forbidden (by his physician) 4: (11)\nEven so are human pleasures compared with the pleasures of the gods: divine life and pleasures surpass (the former) a thousand times and more. (12)\nThose endowed with excellent knowledge live many nayutas 1 of years; so great a loss suffer the fools in a life of less than a hundred years! (13)\nThree merchants set out on their travels, each with his capital; one of them gained there much, the second returned with his capital, and the third merchant came home after having lost his capital. This parable 2 is taken from common life; learn (to apply it) to the Law. (14, 15)\nThe capital is human life, the gain is heaven; through the loss of that capital man must be born as a denizen of hell or a brute animal. (16)\nThese are the two courses open to the sinner; they consist in misery, as corporal punishment, &c.; for the slave to his lusts 3 has forfeited human life and divine life. (17)\nHaving once forfeited them, he will have to endure these two states of misery; it will be\ndifficult for him to attain an upward course 1 for a long time to come. (18)\nConsidering what is at stake, one should weigh (the chances of) the sinner and of the virtuous man (in one's mind).\nHe who brings back his capital, is (to be compared to) one who is born again as a man. (19)\nThose men who through the exercise of various virtues 2 become pious householders, will be born again as men; for all beings will reap the fruit of their actions. (20)\nBut he who increases his capital, is (to be compared to) one who practises eminent virtues; the virtuous, excellent man cheerfully attains the state of gods 3. (21)\nWhen one thus knows that a (virtuous) monk or householder will be gladdened (by his gain), how, then, should a man, whilst he is losing (his chance), not be conscious of his losing it? (22)\nAs a drop of water at the top of a blade of Kusa-grass dwindles down to naught when compared with the ocean, so do human pleasures when compared with divine pleasures. (23)\nThe pleasures in this very limited life of men are like (the water at) the top of a blade of Kusa-grass; for the sake of what will a man not care to gain and\nto keep (so precious a good which he risks to lose)? (24)\nHe who has not renounced pleasure, will miss his aim (i.e. the true end of his soul); for though he has been taught the right way, he will go astray again and again. (25)\nBut he who has renounced pleasure, will not miss his aim; (he will think): I have learned that, by getting rid of this vile body, I shall become a god. (26)\nHe will be born among men where there is wealth, beauty, glory, fame, long life, and eminent happiness. (27)\nSee the folly of the sinner who practises unrighteousness: turning away from the Law, the great sinner will be born in hell. (28)\nSee the wisdom of the wise man who follows the true Law: turning away from unrighteousness, the virtuous man will be born as a god. (29)\nA wise man weighs in his mind the state of the sinner and that of the virtuous man; quitting the state of the sinner, a sage realises that of the virtuous. (30)\nThus I say.\n27:3 Yavasa, explained by mudgam\u00e2sh\u00e2di. Mutton of gram-fed sheep is greatly appreciated in India.\n28:1 Aya = aga, literally goat.\n28:2 Kuya = kyuta is said of one who is born after his death in a lower sphere than that in which he lived before.\n28:3 According to the commentators the eightieth part of a rupee.\n28:4 The commentators relate 'old stories' to explain allusions in the text; they will, however, be intelligible without further comment, though I do not contend that those stories were not really old and known to the author of the S\u00fbtra.\n29:1 A nayuta or niyuta is equal to\nIt is derived in the following way:\n1 p\u00fbrva = 8,400,000 p\u00fbrv\u00e2\u1e45gas.\n1 nayut\u00e2nga = 8,400,000 p\u00fbrvas.\n1 nayuta = 8,400,000 nayut\u00e2\u1e45gas.\n29:2 This parable closely corresponds to Matth. xxv. 14, Luke xix. 11. I need not here discuss the problems raised by this coincidence since they will, as I hear, be fully treated by Herr H\u00fcttemann, a pupil of Professor Leumann of Strassburg.\n29:3 L\u00f4lay\u00e2sadh\u00ea = l\u00f4lat\u00e2satha. The commentator takes l\u00f4lat\u00e2 for l\u00f4la and makes the word a karmadh\u00e2raya. I think that the word satha which originally means 'one who deceives others' is used here in the sense one who deceives himself.'\n30:1 I.e. birth as a man or a god.\n30:2 Siksh\u00e2. The commentator quotes the following passage in Pr\u00e2krit: Souls gain human birth through four causes: (1)a kind disposition (prakritibhadrat\u00e2), (2) love of discipline (prakritivin\u00eetat\u00e2), (3) compassion (s\u00e2nukrosanat\u00e2), and (4) want of envy (amatsarit\u00e2).\n30:3 For a higher rank than that of a god, e.g. that of a K\u00eavalin, cannot, in the present state of the world, be attained.","title":"Jaina Sutras, Part II (SBE45): Uttar\u00e2dhyayana: Seventh Lecture. The Parable of the Ram, etc.","type":"page"}