Bhavana Bodh

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

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BHAVANA BODH
pleasures. O you ascetic ! friend! start making your rare human birth extremely successful by enjoying the best of worldly life.
Anathi Muni said- But Oh Shrenik, King of Magadh Desh! you are yourself an orphan; how can you help me to get over my orphanhood? How can a pauper make one wealthy? How can a simpleton or an ignorant enlighten others in knowledge? How can a barren woman offer a child. When you yourself are an orphan how will you releive me from my orphanhood? Hearing these words of the ascetic, the king was much perturbed and surprised; he was overcome with doubt about his state of being as he heard such retort of the ascetic, like which he had never heard in his life so far. He spoke " I enjoy riding on many types of horses, I am the owner of many intoxicated elephants, various sections of army are at my command, I have no dearth of towns harem, villages, and fourlegged animals; all sorts of human enjoyments i possess at my bidding, my servants are well obedient to me, all five kinds of wealth and riches are in my store, whatever I like and desire is quite near to me and quickly available. Being so prosperous and powerful how can I be called an orphan? Perhaps you, Godly ascetic! you may be wrong in calling me an orphan." To this the ascetic said - "O you King, you do not seem to have understood what I meant in calling you an orphan. You are really an orphan but you do not realize it. - Now hear patiently and with rapt attention what I say further and then you can decide about the truth or falsity of my calling you an orphan. First I shall tell you how I felt I was an orphan and to relieve my self from that orphanhood, how I adopted the life of an ascetic, renouncing all worldly attachment."
There is a beautiful city called Kaushambi wherein lived my very rich father named Dhansanchaya- a store house of wealth - O great King when I was very young, my most beautiful and excellent eyes began to ache and pain terribly and a blood burning fever overpowered my whole body and that pain even sharper than any weapon, began to torment me as a deadly enemy. I suffered from an excruciating headache due to my paining eyes. I was thus much down with sorrow and suffering like the one resulting from the attack by a thunderbolt causing terrible fear even in others minds. Many