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Bhagawan Mahavir ]
[ 285
Kollaka for some time, the Lord started for Patrakala, from where he went to Kumara-gaon. There was a garden named Champaka near that village. Lord Mahavira chose this garden for meditation. Goshala was with the Lord. There was a wealthy potter Kupana by name who lived in this village. As a rule, wealthy people generally fall a prey to various kinds of vices. Only a few of them possess strong character. That is the ideal use of wealth when it is spent in a good cause, e. g. in opening hospitals and dispensaries for the patients, in establishing educational institutions for the illiterate, in uplifting the nations, caste or country, in maintaining the poor, the crippled and the decrepit, in giving relief to the sufferers from famine or other natural calamities, and in saving the life of numberless dumb cattle and innocent beasts etc. It is therefore, desirable that every rich man, who wants to leave his name in the transient world for ever, should invest his money in a good cause.
This potter, named Kupana, was a great drunkard. He was so much addicted to wine that all his wealth was gradually decreasing like water leaking out from a cracked pot. Although he was aware of this fact, still he could not check his habit of drinkig. He was the owner of a Dharmashala, in which a saint, named Chandracharya, was staying at that time. Chandracharya belonged to the line of the disciples of Lord Parshvanatha, and was very wise and wellinformed. He had bestowed the right of being Acharya (Head) of the Sangha ( Assembly of Sadhus ) upon his own disciple, Varddhana-Muni, and himself applied to observe a very austere vow, named 'Jina-Kalpa'. He used to practise meditation every day in order to exhaust his karmas competely.
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