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PUNYA (GOOD DEEDS)
Story of Shälibhadra
A long time ago, a poor widow had a young son. She had to work hard to provide for herself and her son. Once, there was a day of a great festival and neighboring families prepared a tasteful pudding of milk and rice called kheer. The neighborhood kids were enjoying the kheer, and seeing this the poor boy went to his mother and asked her to make kheer for him too. He did not realize that his mother did not have enough money to buy the milk, rice, and sugar needed for making kheer. The mother tried to explain the situation, but the boy started crying for kheer.
The mother could not tolerate his crying, so she said, "Don't cry, my son, I will make kheer for you." She went to the neighbors and borrowed milk, sugar and rice and made kheer. She served the kheer in an earthen plate, and told him to wait until it had cooled down a little. Then she left to get the water from the well.
While the boy waited for kheer to cool, a monk came to the boy's home for alms (to get food). The boy was very happy to have this opportunity to offer alms to the monk and invited him come in. While he was serving the kheer, he decided to serve all the kheer to the monk with joy. After the monk left, he ate whatever kheer was stuck to the plate and the pot. He did not regret for his action but instead felt very happy that he could offer the food to the monk. Since he had offered the kheer to the monk willingly, he earned a lot of Punya. As a result of this Punya, in his next life he was born into a very wealthy family with all luxuries. His name was Shälibhadra. Shälibhadra later in life realized what life is all about. He renounced the luxuries of life, and uplifted his soul by becoming a monk of Lord Mahävir.
Story of a Butcher and King Shrenik
There lived a butcher in Magadh City. He enjoyed his job. One day, King Shrenik requested that there would be no more killing in the city. All slaughterhouses and the killing of animals in the city stopped at the request of king but the butcher continued killing the animals. When he was asked why he did not follow King Shrenik's request, he said he loved his job of killing and could not stop. King Shrenik decided to put him in a dry well so that there would be nothing for him to kill. To everyone's surprise, the killing did not stop there either. The butcher made animals from wet clay and then pretended to kill them. Since, he enjoyed killing so much, he accumulated Päp (bad karmas) that gave rise to a situation where he has to suffer again in his next life.
From these two stories, we learn that if we want happiness and comfort, we should offer comfort to others. As the saying goes you reap what you sow.
List of Good and Bad Deeds :
The following is a list of some activities that can bring comfort to others and can ultimately provide the same for us. They are:
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Offering food to the needy (only vegetarian food)
Offering clothes to the needy
Helping the sick
JAIN PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE I
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