________________
JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
99
and the other to his back, and flung him over the cliff. Thus was the robber hurled into the abyss of the mountain, and dashed to pieces when he reached the bottom. The deity that dwelt on the top of the Robber's cliff observed the actions of the two and, applauding the woman, uttered the following stanza :
Wisdom is not always confined to men; A woman too is wise and shows it now and then.
Having thrown the robber over the cliff, the woman thought to herself, “If I go home, they will ask me, 'Where is your husband? and if, in answer to this question, I say “I have killed him’ they will pierce me with the knives of their tongue, saying 'We ransomed the scoundrel with a thousand pieces of money and now you have killed him.' If, on the other hand, I say, 'He sought to kill me for my jewels,' they will not believe me. I am done with home.” She caste off her jewels, went into the forest, and after wandering about for a time came to a certain hermitage of nuns. She reverently bowed and said, 'Sister, receive me into your Order as a nun'. So they received her as a nun.
After she had become a nun, she asked 'Sister, what is the goal of your religious life ? “Sister, the development of spiritual ecstasy through the employment of the kasinas, or else the memorising of a thousand articles of faith, this is the highest aim of our religious life.' Spiritual ecstasy I shall not be able to develop, Reverend Sister; But I will master the thousand articles of faith. When she mastered the thousand articles of faith, they said to her, “You have
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
