Bhagvana Mahavira

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 44

36
Bhagavan Mahāvīra
attendants, named Vijayä, happened to visit the house of the minister. She gathered what had been happening and informed her mistress Mrgavati who consulted her husband about the matter. There was a lot of talk about it in the whole of the Kingdom.
The king and the minister tried their best to persuade Bhagavan Mahāvīra to accept food but in vain. His visits to the families and his returning without accepting food continued for five months and twentyfive days. On the twentysixth day he visited the house of Śreṣṭhi Dhanavaha. There Bhagavan Mahāvīra saw a girl with shaven head standing on the threshold. Her legs had been chained. After a three-day fast, she had been given a few boiled pulses in a winnower. Though born as a princess, she was then living the life of a slave-girl. There was the opportunity for Bhagavan Mahāvīra to translate his resolution into practice. On seeing Bhagavan Mahāvīra, she became extremely happy and forgot her miserable lot. She offered boiled pulses to him from her winnowing basket. She saw Bhagavan Mahāvīra approaching her to collect food, but alas, the very next moment she saw him turning back. He did not accept the food, so she became sad. She suddenly began to shed tears and sobbed. Tears rolling down her cheeks fulfilled all the conditions of Bhagavan's resolution. Mahāvīra returned and accepted the pulses he had been offered.
The news of this event spread in the town like wild fire. That Bhagavan Mahāvīra had accepted food from the slavegirl of Śreşthi Dhanavaha became the talk of the town. King Satānīka and queen Mṛgavati came to the house of the Śresthi to congratulate the slave-girl. They were surprised to see that the slave-girl was none other than Chandanabālā, the daughter of King Dadhivahaha of Campā and wondered how she had been made a slave. (Candanabala's mother happened to be, the sister of Queen Mṛgavati). When the people came to know the miserable plight of this girl, they