Some Aspects of Indian Culture

SR No.: 001132
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A S Gopani, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1981
Total Pages: 211
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Discourse
File Size: 15 MB

Page 108

Jambu-A bistorical person..
awoke. These were the dreams: (1) Smokeless fire; (2) Lake of lotuses; (3) Field of rice with trees laden with fruits; (4) Elephant as white as a white cloud, with four tusks; (5) Jujube fruit having pleasant colour, smell and taste. On this very night, the soul of a god named Vidyunmali descending from the heaven was conceived in the womb of Dharini. Just after completing nine months-the full period of pregnancy -a boy was born to her. As he began to grow, the fragrance of his fame and virtues began to spread far and wide.
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Just at this time, Sudharama, in course of his peregrinations, came over this city and encamped in the temple named Gunajila. Along with people of all communities and castes, Jambu also went out to pay respects to Sudharma. Having heard' Sudharma's religious sermon delivered to the feeling of detachment and dejection. While returning home having firmly made up his mind to renounce the world and undertake monkhood with explicit consent of the parents, he saw on the way a large crowd of sepoys and soldiers near one of the gates of the city. Thereupon. he asked the charioteer to divert the chariot and take him home via another route. On his way home, he was seized with a terrible feeling of death as he thought he would be no more in a moment if even one of the destructive weapons wielded by the soldiers to finish the foes, fell on his head and in that case he would meet his end without the benefit of an ascetic life and therefore he ordered the charioteer to take him back to Sudharma instead of taking him home. Having gone to Sudharma again and having paid him full respect again he implored him to give. him the vow of complete celibacy till death which he did. Now as a total celibate he repaired home and requested his parents to give consent to him to renounce the world and become a monk. The parents replied with one voice that people do hear. the religious sermon but they do not take to monkhood. Jambu was not impressed. by what the parents said. He on the contrary advanced a counter-argument saying that some take time in understanding the import and implications of the scriptural injunctions while the others are quick to imbibe their meaning and significance. In support of his contention Jambu described to the parents the story of those five friends. who went to the garden where in a solitray corner the Tirthankara had fixed up bis quarter. They, Jambu continued, bowed to the Tirthankara, heard the sermon on the law, exchanged their views, made up their mind to renounce and finally got omniscience' and became emancipated. Finishing the story and exphasizing the moral on their minds, Jambu repeated his resolve. Seeing Jambu unmoved they submitted a compromise formula that Jambu should first lead a normal life of a householder, enjoy marital pleasures and then become a monk. Against this proposal of the parents, Jambu narrated the story of a monkey who being fond of pleasures met with a tragic death getting stuck into the bitumen. Seeing Jambu unbudging in the stand he had taken, the parents thought it wise to inform the parents of the eight brides namely Samudragri, Sindhumati and others with whom Jambu was earlier enagaged. The brides through their parents conveyed that Jambu's resolve was their resolve because they have given over their hearts to him. As the marriage