Golden Steps To Salvation

Author(s): Padmasagarsuri
Publisher: Arunoday Foundation

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share the happiness and relief of the foot. Thus they live co-operating with one another.
Pride is a vice but sometimes pride proves instrumental in the acquisition of knowledge. It is said,
अहंकारोऽपि बोधाय ॥
Ahamkāropi bodhāya Pride leads to enlightenment indirectly.
The life history of Āchārya Haribhadra Soori illustrates thc truth of this statement. He was a priest in the court of Chithorgar. He was a master of the fourteen kinds of knowledge and had acquired an extraordinary knowledge of all the shāstrās (philosophies). Falling a victim to pride he declared that he would become the disciple of any one if he could not understand anything stated by that person. One day while he was going about in the city, when he approached a Jain nunnery he heard the following stanza being recited by a holy nun called, Yakinimahatthara. चक्कि दुगं हरिपणगं
पणगं चक्कीण केस चक्की । केसव चक्की केसव,
दुचक्कि अ केसवो चक्की ॥ Chakkidugam haripanagam
Panagam chakkinakesavo chakki Kesav chakkikesav
Duchakki a Kesavo chakki. Two Chakris (Emperors), five Haris (Vasudeva), five chakri, one Keshava (Vasudeva), one Chakri, one Keshava, two Chakri, one Keshava and one Chakri. In this manner twelve emperors (chakravarthis and nine Vasudevas are born in the present. The holy nun Yakini. mahattarã was repeating this stanza to memorize it. Haribhadra was unable to understand it. He thought, "Hari and Keshava are properly mentioned but what is the chakki? That too it was mentioned six times in the stanza." Amazed by the stanza Haribhadra approached her and made fun of her.