ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 457

after giving bath to Jain idols (called gandhodaka) and put them on the body or Shripal. The miracle happened and Shripal regained his old charismatic body and became perfectly well. She then applied the same to all the soldiers and everyone became well.
Now Shripal and Maina started planning how to regain their empire of Champanagari. King Pahupal offered his army to Shripal but the same was refused by Shripal, So they started building a town in the forest with beautiful buildings, facilities etc. They invited people of all castes and creeds to work and live in it. When the town was ready it was named as Mainanagari after Mainasundari. Main conceived and gave birth to twin handsome sons also, Life was going on well for some time. Then one day Shripal told Maina that he must go overseas to expand his empire and ultimately win Champanagari also. On insistent pressure from Shripal, Maina agreed. Shripal left for a tour of twelve long ears and on the route won most of the kingdoms, married beautiful princesses also and ultimately returned and conquered Champanagari and all other rival kingdoms.
Shripal started ruling Champanagari with Maina as the queen. By now Maina had two more sons. He initiated a lot of activities for the welfare of his subjects and brought the rule based on equality, love, and live and let live principles. Life was going on smoothly till one day a Sangh of Jain monks and nuns came to Chama. Shripal and Maina also started going to the Sangh to serve the visiting monks and nuns and listen to their sermons. So one day the leader of the Sangh told Shripal that the time has come for him to relinquish his empire and spend time for self realization and achieve salvation. Maina was also listening and both were greatly inspired. So they gave their empire to their sons and became Jain monk and nun. After lot of penance, Shripal achieved salvation i.e. Moksha.
Acarya Vadiraj (Pujanpatha Pradip edited by Pt Hiralal Jain published by Shri Parshwnath Digambar Jain Mandir Subzi Mandi Delhi).
He was an exceptionally intelligent Jain monk and was considered as a conqueror of all religious cum philosophical debates with renowned scholars of all religions. He was thus known as Vadiraj or the king of debaters'. He belonged to the Chalukya kingdom (King Jai Singh 1 in 12th century AD. Even though he was inflicted with leprosy, he had a very large following of disciples.
One day in the court of King Jai Singh some courtiers made fun of Vadiraj as a leper and ridiculed all the Jain naked monks. Angered by such statements, the treasurer who was a staunch follower of Vadiraj said that Vadiraj has a body of gold and the courtier is lying. The king decided to visit Vadiraj himself next day to verify the truth.
Immediately the treasure went to Vadiraj and told the entire episode to him. Vadiraj consoled the treasure and asked the treasure not to worry. At night Vadiraj composed the devotional poem known as Ekibhavastortra and had his body completely free from leprosy. Next day the king visited Vadiraj and was amazed at the lustrous golden body of Vadiraj. He ordered the courtiers who defamed Vadiraj to be punished and extricated from his kingdom. However Vadiraj asked the king to forgive all by introducing the king to the Jain doctrine of karma, devotion, right faith etc. The king became a firm believer of Jain doctrine and forgave all the culprits. Ekibhavastotra is to date also considered like a panacea for eliminating all the diseases including leprosy by Jains. I give below two stanzas which talk about leprosy.
आनंद-आंसू वदन धोंय जो तुम चित आने । गदगद सुर सों सुया मन्त्र पढि पूजा ठानें ।। ताके बहुविधि व्याधि व्याल चिरकाल निवासी। भाजै थानक छोड़ देह बांबइ के वासी ।।3।।
Your thoughts pervading the mind, the tears of happiness and happy recitation of the mantras during the prayers result in the departure of deeply entrenched dreadful diseases and leave the body healthy and happy.
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0