Treasury of Jain Tales

SR No.: 006762
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 468
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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also felt depressed and wondered what he could do for her so that she might participate in the festival. Then she told him of a rich merchant named Dhana who lived in that city and whose peculiar habit was to give a bead of gold to any one who greeted him first in the morning and suggested that Kapila should make it a point to greet him earliest in the morning and get the gold. Kapila was happy to agree.
In his anxiety not to miss the opportunity, he woke much before daybreak and rushed to Dhana's house. He was apprehended by the city guards and produced before the king. When the king asked him why he was on the road at that odd hour of the night, unless his intention was burglary, he told the truth. The king took pity on him and said that he would give him whatever he asked for. Kapila could not quite make up his mind as to what he should ask from the king. He therefore asked for some time and the king agreed to
In an adjoining garden, he sat under a tree and began to put his thoughts together, "What can I buy with some small quantity of gold ? A saree, some jewellery, may be a cart, a servant and some such luxury. Perhaps a little hospitality to my friends. All this would mean plenty of money, much more than a little quantity of gold would fetch. He thought again and thought deeply. He ultimately reached the conclusion that what he wanted was liberation from desire. He remembered his previous birth, pulled out his hair and became a monk. With a begging bowl, which he received from a deity, he came before the king. When the king asked him whether he had made up his mind, Kapila said, "As one gets, so one longs for more. Acquisition increases grief. If I get a bead or two of gold, I will desire more and even a crore of them will not satisfy my mind." The king really offered him a crore of such beads but Kapila refused even to look at them. For six months after this, he lived in hiding unknown to the servant girl.
in a forest, about eighteen Yojanas away from the city of Räjagrha, where Kapila happened to be living for some time, five hundred thieves of the Ikkadadasa tribe came. Balabhadra was their leader. Kapila realised through his superior knowledge that they would soon renounce worldly life. So he went into the forest towards the place where the thieves had camped. One of the guards on duty caught him and led him to Balabhadra; they asked