Part 21 - On the course of life of the non-restrained

Q. 60. Bhante! The non-restrained, non-abstinent, and those who have neither uprooted sinful acts nor given them up,—when they pass away from this world, do they become celestial beings in the next life?

A. 60. Gautama! Some of these become celestial beings, and some others do not become celestial beings.

Q. 61. Bhante! By passing away from this life into the next, some of these, as you say, become celestial beings, and some others do not become celestial beings. What’s the reason for that?

A. 61. Gautama! A living being who lives in a village, in a cluster of villages, a town, a downtown, a metropolis, a village surrounded by mud-walls, an undeveloped town, a health? [healthy?] resort, a town connected with both land and water routes, a port, a hermitage or even a halting place; a living being with thirst borne without intention, with hunger borne without intention, with abstinence from sex practised without intention, with heat or cold, with bites by mosquitoes or wild flies—all borne without intention, with uneasiness due to non-bath, sweat and dust, dirt and mud—again all borne without intention, for a short while or for long, has his own soul under torture, and because of this/out of this, he dies; then such a living being attains, after death, the Vāṇavyantara heaven and is born therein as a celestial being.

Q. 62. Bhante! What sort of description is given to the heaven occupied by the Vāṇavyantaras?

A. 62. Gautama! Just as in this world of human beings, there are, always full of flowers, with sprouts, with bunches of flowers and of leaves, with trees of the same species, with twin trees, bending under the weight of fruits and flowers, or about to bend under similar weight, with crowns of buds and the like, aśoka forest, saptaparṇa forest, campaka forest, mango forest, tilaka forest, forest of gourd creepers, banyan forest, chatrogha forest, aśana forest, śaṇa forest, alasī forest, kusumba forest, siddhārtha forest, bandhujīvaka forest, with wonderous beauty, making the world a worthy place; likewise with the heaven occupied by the Vāṇavyantara devas, with a minimum life-span of 10,000 years and maximum of one palyopama, inhabited as it is by many such devas and their consorts. This heaven is widely spread and beautifully covered, has light and is deeply gay. Oh Gautama! The heaven of the Vāṇavyantaras has been stated to be such. For this, oh Gautama! is it said that a living being who is non-abstinent, who has neither uprooted sinful acts nor given them up becomes a deva.

On this, Gautama made the following submission:

Bhante! They are so as you ordain. Glory be to the great Lord! So saying, Gautama paid respectful obeisance and homage to the Śramaṇa Bhagavān Mahāvīra and resumed his seat exposing his soul to penance and austerities.

Chapter one ends.

Notes (based on commentary of Abhayadeva Sūri):

(no notes available for this section)