________________
250
PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
days. Then it learned from the women, who came for fetching water that Lord Mahavira had arrived in the vicinity and thousands of people had left to have the holy sight of the Lord. No sooner did the frog hear the Lord's name than it began to reflect that it had formerly heard that name. On frequently pondering over the name of the Lord the knowledge of the previous lives was revealed to it. It also recollected that it had solemnly accepted the vows before the Lord. But then he lost his faith in the vows and due to his attachment he was reduced to this condition. So he thought he would like to have the holy sight of the Lord.
The reflection of the sight of God and the preceptor is the holy reflection. Thereby the soul contracts auspicious Karmas and the good rewards are produced as a result. The frog came out of the well with great efforts and jumpingly it proceeded in the direction where Lord Mahavira had arrived. Then it was trampled under the foot of a horse of king Shrenik's procession and was badly injured.
If you meet with an accident and sustain injury, you would catch hold of the cab-driver, beat him or take him to the policestation and get him punished through the court.
But that frog was not enraged with the horse or the driver of the horse. It slowly moved on the side of the path and sat reflecting, "Alas! How unlucky should I be that I could not get the holy glimpse of the Lord though he is so near! With this injury I cannot reach him. I only bow down to him from here. Oh Lord, I pray for your shelter for lives to come”.
With this holy reflection he passed away to become Maharddhika God in the heaven.
CHANGES IN REFLECTIONS
You must have experienced that the soul passes over from auspicious reflections to evil ones and vice versa. When you come here and attend to this discourse you reflect that you should not entertain anger, pride, deceit and greed. But can you keep these reflections up ? Can you hold them up, when you glide on to the worldly affairs ? Later if some one abuses you, you at once repay him in the same coins.
