Book Title: Chitrabhanu Man with Vision
Author(s): Clare Rosenfield
Publisher: Jain Meditation International Centre New York

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 41
________________ Rup was exultant to see his name flashing on the outside of his fountain pen. He paid the man, and rushed off to school, eager to show his classmates. One classmate told him, “All right, the gold glitters, but what about the pen? Does it still write?" Rup opened the pen to write. To his dismay, he saw that the nib and pump were gone. The man had stolen away the valuable inner parts of the pen. "Well, just as I thought,” his friend pointed out, “you are left with only the outer shell. Without the inside stuff, the mechanism, of what use is it? It's only a name!" . Rup saw how vulnerable he had been. He felt cheated. It was not the only occasion in which he was fooled. When he was a young lad of nearly sixteen years, he spent many after school hours helping his father sell cloth at his shop. Because Rup's father was honest and fair, the townspeople trusted him. In an emergency people would come with an ornament to mortgage in exchange for its worth in rupees. Each borrower would receive a receipt guaranteeing the safety of his ornament. Then Chhogalal would make a packet of the ornament, label it, and mark it with the date of the transaction. The person would come back and claim his packet when he was able to buy it back. All the packets remained locked up in a strongbox in one corner of the shop. One Saturday morning, a long-bearded yogi happened to come by the shop. He addressed Rup, “My son, give me alms, won't you? Pay your respects to this yogi of miracles. Give me one and I will give you ten.” "What do you mean by ten?” Rup asked him. “Do you have one rupee?” the old yogi inquired. Rup handed one rupee over to him. The man opened his palm and Rup saw ten rupees there. Naturally Rup became curious to know how he made ten from one. "How did you do that?” he begged him to explain. “Oh, I have so many powers, siddhis,” the yogi replied 24 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326