Part 4: Emancipation (mokṣa) of Nemi (Neminātha)

And now, after the Supreme Lord had wandered in Madhyadeśa, et cetera, the Lord wandered in cities Rājapura, et cetera in the north. He went to Mt. Hrīmat and, wandering in many Mleccha countries, enlightened kings, ministers, et cetera. After he had wandered among āryas and non-āryas, the Lord went again to Hrīmat. Then he wandered in the Kirāta-countries, destroying the delusion of all the people. After coming down Mt. Hrīmat, he wandered in the Deccan, awakening, like the sun, many bhavya-lotuses.

From the time of his omniscience, as the Lord wandered, there were eighteen thousand noble ascetics, forty thousand intelligent female ascetics, four hundred who knew the fourteen pūrvas, fifteen hundred who had clairvoyance, the same number who had the art of transformation, and the same number of omniscients, one thousand sādhus with mindreading knowledge, eight hundred ascetics with the art of disputation, one lac and sixty-nine thousand laymen, three lacs and thirty-nine thousand laymen (in his retinue).

Attended by such a retinue, accompanied by gods, asuras, and kings, knowing that it was time for his emancipation, the Lord went to Raivataka. There in a samavasaraṇa made by the Indras, the Master delivered his last sermon with a desire for benefit to everyone. Enlightened by that sermon, some there became mendicants, some adopted laymanship, and others a disposition toward right-belief. Then the Lord commenced a pādapopagama fast for a month with five hundred and thirty-six sādhus. On the eighth of the white half of Śuci (Āṣāḍha), (the moon being) in Tvāṣṭra in the evening, Nemi, engaged in śaileśi^[1] meditation, attained emancipation together with the munis.

The princes, Pradyumna, Śāmba, and others also attained emancipation; and Kṛṣṇa’s eight chief-queens and the Blessed One’s brothers. Many other sādhus and other sādhvīs, Rājīmatī, et cetera went to the abode from which there is no return. Four hundred years as householder, one year as an ordinary sādhu, five hundred years as an omniscient—this was the life of Rathanemi. Such was Rājīmati’s duration of life also, rich in penance, divided into maidenhood, ordinary asceticism, and omniscience. Śivā and Samudravijaya went to the heaven Mahendra and the other Daśārhas became magnificent gods.

Śivā’s son had a life of one thousand years—three hundred years as prince, seven hundred years as ordinary ascetic and omniscient. Śrī Nemi’s emancipation took place when five hundred thousand years had passed since Śrī Nami Jina’s nirvāṇa.

At Śakra’s command Vaiśravaṇa created the Lord’s bier and Śakra himself put the body on it, after worshipping it properly. The gods made the funeral pyre of gośīrṣa-sandal, et cetera as fuel in the south-west on a surface of jeweled slabs. Lifting up the Master’s bier, Purandara brought it there and cast the body of Śrī Nemi Svāmin on the pyre.

At Śakra’s command the Agnikumāras set fire to the pyre and the Vāyukumāras made it blaze quickly. The Abdas^[2] extinguished the fire at the right time with water from the Ocean of Milk; and the Indras, Śakra, Īśāna and others took the Lord’s teeth. The other gods took the remaining bones, the goddesses the flowers, the kings the garments, and the people the ashes of Nemi. Indra engraved the Master’s marks and name on the Master’s cremation slab of vaidūrya with his thunderbolt. Maghavan erected a pure, lofty shrine, provided with a statue of Śrī Neminātha, on the slab. After doing so, the gods, Śakra and others, went to their respective places.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See I, n. 8.

[2]:

Meghakumāras.