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JAINA STORIES
“This sravaka (pointing to Charudatta) is my spiritual master It is because of his great favour that I have attained this divine status To me, therefore, in matters of paying obeisance, he is Number One.”
When the Vidyadharas asked how this came to be so, be said,
"In my previous birth, I was a goat and he was my master Now, I was slaughtered by his companion But before he could kill me, this man did his best to help my spirit and chanted the holy namokara into my ears before I was slaughtered, by dint of which I enjoy this status to-day's
So saying, the deva paid bim homage again and flew away. The Vidyadharas, on their return flight, restored Charudatta to his city But before he departed, on the suggestion of the muni, Charudatta took the vow of imposing zonal restriction on his movement from the time he reacbed his home-city, for, he confessed that, for want of a vow like this he had suffered much in life
On the return flight, Charudatta spent a few days in the company of the Vidyadharas on the Vaitadhya hills and accepted the hand of a Vidyadhara damsel Then, back to his city, Charudatta, in the company of his two wives, spent the rest of his life happily and worthily, fulfilling the vow he had imposed on himself
