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One day, there came a monk named Dharmaghosa to the city. He halted at a park to the north-east of the city. Thousands of people moved out to pay their homage and obeisance to the celebrated monk. From his apartment at the seventh floor, Salibhadra witnessed vast wavęs of crowd moving towards the park. He enquired where for the people were bound, and having obtained the information, he thought of meeting the monk about the solution of his own personal problem. With this end in view, he got ready and slipped out of the house. From the inspiring sermon of the monk, he realised the transitoriness of wordly pleasures. He found that a monk alone was his own master. So he decided to be a monk.
Salibhadra returned home and shared his own thoughts with his mother. This came as a great shock to her. She tried her best to change the son's mind, but her efforts were in vain. At last, it was settled as a compromise that instead of being initiated on that very day, he should renounce at the rate of one wife per day, and should be initiated at the expiry of 32 days, When his wives learnt this, they felt very much disturbed, and they tried their best to keep him back. But Salibhadra had his mind made up. He gave up one wife per day.
Salibhadra's own sister Subhadra was married to Dhanna, who was the son of another very rich man in the same city of Rajagrha - Dhanná had in all eight wives. One day, all the wives were helping Dhannā to bath at the asoka garden. Just then, Subhadrā had a thought in her mind that her dear brother was soon going to renounce the world and be initiated as a monk, and she had her eyes filled with tears. A drop of hot tear fell on Dhannā's back. When Dhannā turned to look at her, he found that her eyes were wet. Said Dhanna,
"Why this? My dear! What makes you grieved at this joyful moment"?
Subhadrā - "Sir! My brother is going to be initiated very soon. Each day, he is giving up one wife".
With indignation, Dhannā looked at Subhadrā's face and said,
| SR No. | 022804 |
| Book Title | Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Nagaraj Muni |
| Publisher | Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers |
| Publication Year | 1986 |
| Total Pages | 804 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 19 MB |