Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra
by Helen M. Johnson | 1931 | 742,503 words
This page describes Sanatkumara’s death which is the twenty-first part of chapter VII of the English translation of the Sanatkumara-cakravartin-caritra, contained within the “Trishashti Shalaka Purusha Caritra”: a massive Jain narrative relgious text composed by Hemacandra in the 12th century. Sanatkumara-cakravartin in jainism is one of the 63 illustrious beings or worthy persons.
Part 21: Sanatkumāra’s death
The age of the fourth cakrin was three lacs of years—half a lac as prince, the same as governor, ten thousand years in the conquest of the quarters, ninety thousand years as cakrin, and a lac in the vow. When he knew that it was time for his death, when his life of three lacs of years was completed, Sanatkumāra fasted to death with pure meditation and the homage to the Pañcaparameṣṭhins and was born a god in the heaven Sanatkumāra.
May this fourth book from the ocean with jewels in the form of texts in which are described twenty-two persons—five Arhats, five Sīrins, five Upendras, five enemies of these (Prativāsudevas) and two Cakrins—be for your good fortune. Something from the sūtras is related here, something from fiction, something from yogapaṭa.[1] If there is anything false in these, may it be the wicked deeds that are false, good people.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Yogapaṭa (°patṭa) is the secret traditional knowledge handed down orally by a guru to a disciple as his successor.