Part 27: Sermon on nirjarā

When Vāsava, Upendra (Tripṛṣṭha), and Sīrin had become silent after this hymn of praise, Śreyāṃsa began a sermon, the source of emancipation.

“This boundless saṃsara [saṃsāra?] resembles the ocean Svayambhūramaṇa. People are whirled around in it, across, up, and down, by waves of karma. Just as perspiration is ḍestroyed by a breeze, just as flavors are destroyed by medicine, so the eight karmas are destroyed quickly by nirjarā only. Nirjarā is said to be twofold, voluntary and involuntary, because of its wearing away here of karma that has become the seed of saṃsāra. That of persons with subdued senses is known as ‘voluntary’; of other creatures as ‘involuntary’; since the maturing of karma, like that of fruit, results from (outside) means and by itself. Just as gold, though faulty, becomes purified when heated by a burning fire, so a soul becomes purified, burned by the fire of penance.

Fasting, partial fasting, limitation of food, giving up choice food, bodily austerities, and avoidance of all useless motion are outer penance. Confession and penance, service to others, study of sacred texts, reverence, indifference to the body, pure meditation, are the sixfold inner penance. The self-restrained person destroys karma, though hard to destroy, immediately in the burning fire of inner and outer penance. Just as a pool with all the outlets blocked by some means is not filled at all with renewed streams of water, in the same way the soul, protected by obstruction of the channels (for acquiring karma), is not filled with renewed karmic matter. Just as the water of a pool, formerly deep, dries up, when it is burned frequently by the attack of the fierce rays of the sun, so all of people’s formerly acquired karma burned up by penance attains real destruction immediately.

For creating destruction of karma, inner penance is better than outer; and in this (inner penance) the munis have said meditation to be the sole umbrella. Ascetics, indulging in meditation, actually destroy instantly much karma acquired during a long time, though it is very strong. Just as a disease of the humors, though advanced, dries up from fasting, so karma formerly accumulated is destroyed by penance. Just as a mass of clouds is dispersed here and there by cruel winds, so karma is dispersed by penance. When impeding of karma and destruction of karma, though always powerful, have reached their maximum, then they produce mokṣa quickly. Making ever new destruction of karma by the two kinds of penance, a pure-minded person, attains mokṣa which is free from all action.”

Founding of congregation:

As a result of the sermon of the Lord, many people became mendicants, but Balabhadra and Hari adopted right-belief. The Lord completed his sermon at the end of the first division of the day and Tripṛṣṭha’s men brought the oblation weighing four prasthas.^[1] It was thrown up in the air in front of the Master and half was taken by the gods as it fell. When it had fallen, half of the remainder was taken by the king and the rest by the other people. Then the Lord left by the north gate and sat down on the jeweled dais within the middle wall. Then Gośubha, the chief of the seventy-six gaṇadharas, seated on the Master’s foot-stool, delivered a sermon. He concluded his sermon in the second division of the day and all the people, Śakra, Tripṛṣṭha, Bala, et cetera, went to their respective abodes. Then the Lord wandered over the earth from that place, spreading the light of knowledge like another sun.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See I, n. 276.