Signs of approaching death
रिष्टाध्याय · परिशिष्ट
- Topics
- 32
- PDF pages
- 671–679
Topics in this session
Headings from the book in reading order. Open a topic for its summary and the knowledge it refers to.
Bowing with devotion to the Tirthankara Arishtanemi (Neminatha), the supreme being free of birth, old age, death and all karma, the author promises to describe the rishta signs indicating…
The teaching on rishta is called a secret handed down through the canon of great sages who knew the highest truth; it is set out for people devoted to good contemplation, not for those…
The author says he will now describe the death signs with great care for great souls who have reflected well on the nature of worldly existence; the commentary notes that people who have…
An appendix chapter on rishta, the signs said to announce approaching death in people who still seem healthy. After an invocation and rules on when death may be announced, it lists signs…
Death should never be announced to people gripped by fear of old age, disease and death who know nothing of other lives, even when the signs make the time of death certain, because the news…
To those who, frightened by the sufferings of wandering through the four states of existence, seek liberation, the abode of all happiness, the news of death should certainly be told, and…
Whatever signs appear that are wholly contrary to a person's own earlier nature and disposition are called rishta by the Jinas; they are described in detail from here on.
The text says that a person who sees the discs of the moon and the sun and the three parts of the earth in the five colours of a rainbow, or as if full of holes, lives only two years.
The text says that a person who sees a circular halo in the half moon and cannot see the pole star, the star Arundhati, the sky, the moon's rays or the sunshine of the day cannot live more…
A person who sees or feels the moon's disc as blazing with extra brilliance and the sun's disc as without lustre is said to go to heaven, that is, to die, in eleven months.
A person who, in a dream or awake, sees his own vomit, phlegm, urine, stool and semen in the colour of a rainbow, of gold or of the stars is said to live ten months.
A person who sees a golden tree come from heaven, sees men with dreadful dangling bodies bent very low, and sees dead men or pishachas in the sky is said to live only nine months.
A person who without any cause quickly becomes very stout, or of himself becomes very thin, or whose nature suddenly becomes deranged without cause, is said to live only eight months.
If a person's footprint in mud comes out as if half cut off at the front or the back instead of whole, and the mud on the foot stays wet of itself without any particular cause, he is said…
A person over whose head owls, crows, fierce vultures, kaushika, kangu, pingala and similar birds have flown, or on whose head they come and sit by force, is said to die surely within six…
If dusty water or plain dust is found rubbed on a person's head without his knowing how it came there, or his head seems to him pervaded by smoke and frost, he is said to die in five months.
A person who constantly sees in the southern sky, the quarter of Yama, a fierce and restless sky lit by flashes of lightning even when there are no clouds is said to go to heaven within…
A person who cannot see his own body when he looks at it, who in dreams sees himself riding a buffalo, camel or donkey, and who by day appears dead in the company of crows is said to live…
A person to whom a rainbow seems to appear plainly in the midst of water and vanish in a moment should, being wise, know that two months of life remain to him and give up all his…
A person who cannot see curls of hair or even the bright light of the moon and the sun, and who sees their reflection before him in a distorted form, is said to have only one month left.
When a person's form is not seen clearly in the eyes (drishti-mandala) of others and he does not perceive even a strong smell, he is said to live no more than three times five, that is…
When a person perceives the smell of a corpse in his own body, complains of bodily pain without any cause, and seems to others to be dreaming even while awake, he is said to live only…
When the body suddenly becomes weak and dark, the ordinary face suddenly becomes round and charming like a lotus, and a mark like an indragopa insect appears on the cheek, the person is…
When aggravated vata causes needle-like pain in the body and intense pain even in the vital points (marma), and the person is distressed every moment by pain like one stung by a fierce…
A person who gets no horripilation even when sprinkled with water as cold as ice, and who does not perceive any of the actions of his body, is said to live no more than two days.
A person who does not hear the samudraghosha, which a footnote explains as the sound heard when the ear openings are covered with the fingers, and who even with great effort cannot see the…
- Signs of death from three years down to two days (body parts not seen)त्रैवार्षिक आदि मरण चिह्नPrognosisp. 604
Parts of the body that a person can no longer see (the verse speaks of his own shadow) are matched in order with the time left: foot three years, shank two years, knee one year, thigh ten…
When both eyebrows become deformed the person is said to live nine days, when a sound like the samudraghosha comes in the ears seven days, when the nose becomes deformed five or four days,…
Visual confusion, darkness before the eyes, twitching of the eyes with heavy tears, much sweating of the face, stillness of the life-bearing vessels, excessive appearance of hair on the…
- What a seeker of liberation should do when fatal signs appearरिष्ट प्रकट होने पर मुमुक्षु आत्मा का कर्तव्यMethodp. 605
On seeing such signs directly, the discerning person should leave home, vehicles, family and all possessions and go north or east to a large, beautiful, pure and quiet place free of living…
Having understood the death signs in healthy people revealed by the words of the great sage Ugradityacharya, the best of sages should keep firmness and steadiness of mind, reflect on the…
The work is again likened to a drop from the ocean of scripture that came from the mouth of the Jina, with all substances and principles as its waves and the means of welfare in this life…