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

Page 73

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since she insisted he told her that as she danced he seemed to have seen her without her head and felt alarmed at this bad omen. But the queen calmly said that since she had faithfully discharged all the duties of a lay disciple, life was of no consequence to her.
One day after her bath she asked her servant to get her garments and when she brought her the wrong one the queen in her anger hit the servant with the mirror that she had in her hand, as a consequence the servant died. The queen was full of remorse and decided to abstain from food. The king would not permit her but agreed on condition that she converted him to her faith before she began her fast. The queen, however, died soon after and was born in the world of gods. Even as a resident of that world Prabhavati, did not stop trying to convert Udayana but did not succeed. He still stuck to his Brahmanical faith and Brahmin ascetics. She therefore came in the form of a Brahmin ascetic and gave to the king some fruits to eat. They were delicious and he asked him where these fruits came from. The ascetic said they grew near his hermitage. The king agreed to go with him there to get more of them. But when he reached there the ascetic (and his other companions) assumed frightful appearance and began to belabour the king. He made an escape into an adjoining wood where he met a few Jain monks. He sought their protection. They had this instruction for him :
The true religion is the refuge of beings in the ocean of existence; and he whose aim is the true religion by enquiring tries to find god, the true religion and the teacher. God i.e. the Jina, is free from the eighteen faults; the true religion is accompanied by perfect compassion; and the good teacher is he who practises strict chastity and refrains from all worldy undertakings and possessions.
Udayana now no more resisted conversion. The god revealed in his real self and transported the king to his palace where in the hall of audience he announced his conversion to the new faith.
A lay devotee from Gandhara had decided to visit all the places connected with the Jinas, their birth places and other places considered holy and sacred. In the course of his visits he learnt of