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BLESSINGS FROM THE GODDESS
(Story from Bhaktamars Storta)
There was a claver thief named, Sudatta. Once, he was caught red-handed while stealing. He was brought before the king. The intemperate king rebuked the thief and asked, "Tel me where do you keep the stolen goods"? As he was a thief, he knew all the crooked policy. He thought that if he named some rich person, the king would be pleased on having attained the wealth and I would be free. Hence he spoke, "The stolen material is with Seth Hemadatta." The king sent for the Seth immediately by sending a messenger. No sooner, the Seth received the massage than he royal palace. On seeing the Seth the king spoke, " Bravo! O Seth! I thought you to be the religious. But today I have found that your worship, adoration, fast, chastity and donation are all hypocrisy merely. Tell me where have you hidden the stolen wealth." The Seth was wonderstruck, "O King! What are you telling? I am seeing this person for the first time then how I could know about the stolen wealth." No sooner the Seth could finish his speech, than the thief spoke in a logical style, "O king sire, be kind to this poor man. O Seth! If you do not wish to give the wealth, you may not give. But please do not tell a lie." The thief spoke in such a style that the king firmly believed in him. He spoke, "So much of atrocity on this poor fellow, in spite of being religious! Throw away this hypocrite into a dark well in the forest." The Seth tried to explain the king but that foolish king did not pay any heed. The king punished the Seth without any consideration. But the Seth did not lose his patience. He was completely sure about his religion and he had perfect belief on the prayer of Lord. He remembered the Lord Adinatha the first ford founder with full faith and adoration. He chanted the first and second verses of the Bhaktamara, with all the rituals. Consequently the Vijaya Deity appeared. She appreciated and praised the Seth. She took him out of the black well and got him decorated on the golden throne with garments. She further told," If you allow me I can give a good punishment to the tyrannical King." The Seth replied, " O Goddess! No necessity. What is the fault of the king? This was the fruition of my previously bonded karmas, which I have to endure and not the King. The King is the instrument alone." As soon as the King knew of the wonderful event, he immediately came there. The Goddess made him ashamed and warned him not to commit any atrocity on the religious in future without justice." The King begged pardon again from the Goddess, as well as from the Seth. He took him to the royal palace with great respect and pomp and show. The thief was called, his face blackened. Then he was taken round the city on an ass. He was banished from the land. This severe punishment was awarded to him give a lesson for the public.
But the kind hearted Hemdutta prevented the king to do so, and asked him to pardon the thief. This was done so as to make them possible to lead the religious life on having seen such wonderful glory of the religion.
The folk present there raised slogans of the victory and longevity of the Seth. "Long"! "Long"!! Live the Seth and "Victory"! "Victory"!! For Jainism." The king adopted Jainism as a consequence.
CHANDANBALA
There once was a beautiful princess named Vasumati. She was the daughter of king
Dadhivahan and queen Dharini of Champapuri. One day war broke out between the King of Champapuri and the king of nearby
Kaushambi. It was a sad war. Vasumati's father could not win the war, so he had
to run away in despair. When Vasumati and her mother learned that they had lost
the war, they also decided to escape. While they were running away in the woods,
a soldier from the enemy's army spotted them and captured both of them. Vasumati
and her mother were scared. They didn't know what the soldier would do to them.
He told the older lady (mother) that he would marry her, and that he would sell
Vasumati. Upon hearing this, the queen went into shock and died. The soldier
immediately felt sorry for his remark, and decided not to make anymore comments.
He took Vasumati to Kaushambi to sell her.
When Vasumati's turn came to be sold as a slave, a merchant named Dhanavah
happened to be passing by. He saw Vasumati being sold and felt that she wasn't
an ordinary girl. He thought she might have been separated from her parents, and
if she was sold as a slave, what would her fate be? So out of compassion for
her, Dhanavah bought Vasumati, freed her from slavery, and took her home. On the
way home he asked her, "Who are you? What happened to your parents? Please don't
be afraid of me. I will treat you as my daughter." Vasumati didn't reply.
When they got home, the merchant told his wife, Moola, about Vasumati. "My
dear," he said, "I have brought this girl home. She has not said anything about
her past. Please, treat her like our daughter." Vasumati was relieved. She
thanked the merchant and his wife with respect. The merchant's family was very
happy with her. They named her Chandanbala, since she wouldn't tell anyone her
real name.
While staying at the merchant's house, Chandanbala's attitude was like that of a
daughter. This made the merchant very happy. Moola, on the other hand, was
wondering what her husband would do with Chandanbala. She thought that he would
marry her because of her beauty. Therefore, Moola was never comfortable with
Chandanbala around. One sunny day, when the merchant came home from his shop, the servant who
usually washed his feet was not there. Chandanbala noticed this, and felt
delighted to get a chance to wash his feet for all the fatherly good things he
had done for her. While she was busy washing the merchant's feet, her hair
slipped out of the hair pin. The merchant saw this and felt that her hair might
get dirty. So he lifted her hair and clipped it on the back of her head. Moola
saw all this and was outraged. She felt that her doubts about Chandanbala were
true. Moola decided to get rid of Chandanbala as soon as possible.
When Dhanavah went on a three day business trip, his wife took the chance to get
rid of Chandanbala. Right away she called a barber to cut off all of
Chandanbala's beautiful hair. Then she tied Chandanbala's legs with heavy chains
and locked her into a distant room, away from the main area of the house. She
told all the servants not to tell the merchant where Chandanbala was, or she
would do the same to them. Then Moola left to go to her parent's house.
When Danavah returned back from his trip, he didn't see either Moola or
Chandanbala. He asked the servants about them. The servants told him that Moola
was at her parent's house, but they didn't tell him where Chandanbala was
because of their fear of Moola.
He asked the servants in a worried tone, "Where is my daughter Chandanbala? You
better speak up now, because if you are hiding the truth, then you will be
fired." Still nobody replied. He was very upset and didn't know what to do.
After a few minutes an older servant thought, "I am an old woman and will soon
die anyway because of age. What is the worse Moola can do anyway." So out of
compassion for Chandanbala and sympathy for the merchant she told him all about
what Moola did to Chandanbala.
She took the merchant to the room where Chandanbala was locked up. Dhanavah
unlocked the door and saw Chandanbala. He was shocked when he saw her. He told
Chandanbala, "My dear daughter, I will get you out of here. You must be hungry,
let me find some food for you." He went to the kitchen to find food for her. He
found that there was no food left, but only some dry lentils in a pan. The
merchant decided to feed her that for the time being. So he took them to
Chandanbala. He told her that he was going to get a blacksmith to cut off the
heavy chains and so he left.
Chandanbala was amazed at how things were going. She started wondering how fate
can change the life from rich to almost helpless. Chandanbala then thought of
offering lentils to someone else before eating. She got up and walked to the
door, and stood there with one foot outside and one inside. To her surprise, she saw a monk (Lord Mahavir) walking near her room. She said,
"Oh respected monk, please accept this food which is suitable for you." But Lord
Mahavir had taken vow to fast until a person who met a certain conditions and
offered him food. His conditions were, 1) the person who would be offering
should be a princess, 2) she should be bald headed, 3) she should be in chains,
4) she should offer uncooked lentils, with one foot inside the house and other
outside, 5) and she should be in tears. Therefore, Lord Mahavir looked at her
and noticed that one of his pre-decided conditions was still missing. She met
all conditions except the tears in her eyes, and therefore Lord Mahavir went on.
Chandanbala felt very sad and tears started running down her face. She was sad
that even though she had the chance to offer food to the monk, he would not
accept it. In her crying voice, she once again requested the monk to accept the
food. Lord Mahavir saw the tears in her eyes, and came back to accept the food
knowing that all his conditions were met. Chanada put the lentils in Lord
Mahavir's hand and felt satisfied.
While Lord Mahavir was looking for his pre-conditioned person, he had fasted for
five months and twenty-five days. Heavenly angels celebrated the end of Lord
Mahavir's fasting. By the angels power, Chandanbala's chains were broken, her
hair grew back, and she was dressed as a princess. The loud music and a
celebration drew the attention of king Shatanikand. He came to this place with
his family, ministers and other people. Sampul, an old servant, recognized
Chandanbala. He walked towards her, bowed, and broke out in tears. King
Shatanikand asked, "Why are you crying?" Sampul replied, "My king, this is
Vasumati the princess of Champapuri, daughter of king Dadhivahan and queen
Dharinee." The king and queen now recognized her, and invited her to live with
them. So she went, but first thanked the merchant Dhanavah who was so kind to
her.
Later on, when Lord Mahavir attained the perfect knowledge, he reestablished the
four-fold order of Jain Sangh (community). At that time, Chandanbala took diksha
and became the first nun (sadhvi). The end of that life, Chandanbala achieved
liberation.
IMPORTANCE OF NAMOKAR MANTRA
Once, a man was going to the market. On the way, a hurt ox was lying there.
Seeing the ox, the man became restless. He felt that the ox was about to die, so
the man sat near it and began to recite the Namokar Mantra. Hearing the Namokar
Mantra, the heart of ox became calm and it died with good feelings. In the next
birth it became the son of a King. There he got many palaces, beautiful cloths,
ornaments, etc. If an animal gets a good life by hearing the Namokar Mantra,
then why will we not get the peace and happiness by reciting the Namokar Mantra?
Everyday we should recite the Namokar Mantra to destroy our sins.
RESULT OF VEGETARIANISM
According to Jainism there lived a hunter in the forest. Once there came a
Digamber Saint. He preached the people about vegetarianism. Most people took an
oath not to eat meat in their life. When he asked the hunter to leave the eating
of meat, the hunter said, "Lord, the meat is our main food and we can't live without it". At the end he decided to leave eating meat. Once he became very
ill. The doctor advised him to eat meat as medicine. He refused and did not take
meat because of his oath. He was born in the heaven. So we should remain pure
vegetarians and never eat meat.
CHANGE OF HEART
Once a businessman was traveling
in a bus. There he found a purse on the seat. He picked it secretly. When he reached home, he found one thousand rupees with
an address slip in the purse and became very happy. After some days he lost a
hundred rupees note. He searched for it but could not find. On the same day his
sweeper came to him and told, "Oh babuji, I found this note from your garage.
Please take it". At the same time he thought, "I am worse than my sweeper,
because I have stolen a purse of a gentleman. I must return it to him". At once
he set out to the owner's house and handed him the purse. When the owner thanked
him, he said," Do not thank me but thank my sweeper who had changed my heart". He
then told the whole story. So we should always remain honest in our life.
MAHAVIR AND THE COW HERDER
One day as Lord Mahavir was going from one place to another, he stopped near a
big tree, outside the village, to meditate. While he was meditating, a cow
herder came there with his cows. He needed someone to look after the cows, so he
could run some errands. He asked Mahavirswami if he would look after the cows
for a few hours. Lord Mahavir was in deep meditation, and did not hear the cow
herder. However, the cow herder went away thinking that Lord Mahavir had heard
him and will look after the cows.
In the meantime, the cows started wandering away, looking for and grazing grass.
A few hours later, the cow herder returned and found all his cows missing. He
asked Mahavirswami, "Where are my cows? What did you do with them?" Lord Mahavir
was still in meditation and did not reply. The cow herder started wondering.
"Where could they be?" Since Lord Mahavir did not reply, the cow herder searched
for them everywhere in the valley, but could not find them. While he was looking
for the cows, they returned to the place where Mahavirswami was meditating.
When the cow herder came back, to his amazement, all his cows were standing near
Lord Mahavir. Mahavirswami was still meditating. The cow herder became very
angry at Lord Mahavir, because he thought that Lord Mahavir was hiding his cows.
So, he took out his rope and was about to whip Mahavirswami with it. Just then,
an angel from heaven came down and held the rope.
"Can't you see that Lord Mahavir is in deep meditation?" asked the angel."But he tricked me!" said the cow herder. The angel replied, "He is a God. He
does not care for your cows or anything else in this world. He was in meditation
and did not hear you. He did not do anything to your cows. You would have gotten
bad karmas for hurting him." The cow herder realized that he had made a mistake. He apologized to Lord
Mahavir and went away silently. The angel went back to heaven feeling happy that
he could stop Lord Mahavir's suffering. Mahavir didn't have any bad feelings towards the cow herder, because he held no
anger towards anyone.
We should not make hasty decisions, because we can be wrong. We should also not
hurt anyone, and should observe forgiveness instead of anger. This way we can
stop new karmas from coming to our soul.
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