The Great Section on the State of the World

Magadha, in the Bharata region of Jambudvipa, is a land of plenty: rice fields, sugarcane full of sweet juice, mung and wheat, cows with ringing bells, coconut, pomegranate and grape groves and beds of saffron, peopled by munis, aryikas (nuns) and devout lay men and women.

Its capital Rajagriha, ringed by a mountain-high wall and a deep moat, is a tapovana (grove of austerity) for munis, a school for students and a place of profit for traders; its women keep samayika (meditative equanimity), fasts and pratikramana (repentance), filter their water and feed both monks and the hungry.

King Shrenika rules there, deep as the ocean, rich as Kubera and devoted to the Jina; in his realm even the wind steals no garment and even beasts do no violence, and Indra praises his kshayika samyaktva (unshakable true faith) in the court of heaven, while Queen Chelana is chaste, accomplished and keeps the lay vows.

When the forest-keeper brings fruits and flowers of all six seasons and announces that Mahavira has come to Mount Vipulachala with his Samavasarana (divine assembly hall), Shrenika rises from his throne, walks seven steps toward the mountain, bows with all eight limbs, gives the messenger all his ornaments and sets out with his family.

Mahavira’s life is recalled: 56 kumaris (celestial maidens) purified his mother’s womb, he descended from the Achyuta heaven with three kinds of knowledge, Kubera rained jewels for fifteen months, the gods bathed him on Mount Sumeru with water of the Milk Ocean and named him Mahavira, and seeing the world as fleeting as lightning he renounced, praised by the Laukantika gods, took the great vows and attained Kevala Jnana (omniscience).

The marvels of the Omniscient are listed: a body free of sweat with milk-white blood, no famine wherever he walks, unblinking eyes, nails and hair that no longer grow, golden lotuses placed beneath his feet as he moves through the sky, and a thousand-spoked dharma-chakra (wheel of dharma) going before him.

On Vipulachala, where even natural enemies give up hostility, Indra’s seat trembles; he comes on the elephant Airavata with the gods of the sixteen heavens, the Bhavanavasi, Vyantara and Jyotishi gods, and Vidyadharas with their queens, and sings a hymn to the Lord who woke the world from the sleep of delusion.

The Samavasarana has a rampart of jewel dust, three walls with four gates each, the eight auspicious objects, and twelve chambers for munis, heavenly goddesses, aryikas, the three other classes of goddesses, the four classes of gods, humans and animals; the Lord sits four finger-breadths above a lotus on a lion throne beside the Ashoka tree, under three umbrellas, fanned by sixty-four chowries.

Shrenika arrives with ministers, family and citizens, leaves his umbrella, chowries and vehicle at a distance and sits in the humans’ chamber, joined by Princes Varishena, Abhayakumara and Vijayabahu; the divine voice is understood by gods, humans and animals, each in their own language.

Asked by the Ganadhara, the Lord teaches that reality is of two kinds, jiva (soul) and ajiva (non-soul); souls are liberated or worldly, and worldly souls are bhavya (capable of liberation) or abhavya, like hard mung beans that never cook; he explains the fourteen margana (categories of inquiry) and the two ladders of spiritual ascent.

He describes misery in all four states: ceaseless torture in hell, beating and burdens for animals, separation from loved ones for humans, and envy and dread of death for gods who see their garlands fade; possessions breed attachment and violence, violence is the root of wandering in samsara, and compassion is the root of liberation.

Those who keep pure conduct and die in samadhi (meditative calm) become great gods and then attain moksha as humans; some reach the Anuttara heavens as Ahamindras and return as Tirthankaras, some become Chakravartis, Baladevas or Kamadevas, while munis who bind a nidana (a wish for worldly reward) become Narayanas who cling to pleasure and go to hell. Hearing this, many become munis or lay votaries, some animals take vows, and gods gain right faith.

Back in his palace Shrenika performs samayika at dusk, dreams of the Jina and of questioning the Ganadhara, and at dawn decides that, having heard the lives of Tirthankaras and Chakravartis, he now wishes to hear the life of Ramachandra.

He doubts the popular versions: that Ravana’s people were flesh-eating Rakshasas; that Kumbhakarna slept six months, unmoved by elephants trampling him or hot oil in his ears, then devoured elephants, buffaloes and men; that Sugriva and Hanuman were monkeys; that the mortal Ravana captured Indra, lord of the gods; that Rama hunted deer; and that Bali took his younger brother Sugriva’s wife. Since speaking falsely of great people binds great sin, he resolves to ask the Ganadhara.