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9. GRAND REWARD IN FUTURE LIVES
During the auspicious festival of ‘Paryushana', there are discourses on the extremely sacred volume of 'Shri Kalpasootra', which contains the examples from the life of Nagketu. In his last birth, Nagketu was a fifteen year old boy, whose mother had passed away. He had a stepmother whom he obeyed and respected. Whenever he was asked to perform any task, he left aside his games and completed the task enthusiastically. Yet his stepmother only bore aversion for him in her heart. She scolded him for everything, slapped him, sometimes beat him hard, kept him hungry and even locked him up in a room. The stepmother's inflictions increased day-by-day and the poor lad was really harassed. Eventually, he went to his friend to seek his advice. To his good fortune, his friend was a Jain, who had not only listened to the words of the Jina but had also understood them, got immersed in them and imbibed them. He had foresight. He did not just think about the present and was prudent even about the distant future. Rejection of present afflictions which would invite more dire afflictions in the future was not acceptable to him. He wanted to resist it in such a way so that there was
Kalpasootra = A great Shwetambar treatise, which is read during the eight days of Paryushana. It elucidates the conduct of a monk and contains the biography of four Tirthankaras (including Shri Mahavir Swami) Paryushana Parva = eight/ten days of a Jain auspicious festival which falls in August/September
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