Illustrated Namokara Mahamantra

Author(s): Shreechand Surana, Surendra Bothra
Publisher: Diwakar Prakashan

Page 39

Next morning the first thing she did was chanting namokāra mantra and then she did sāmāyika (a specific Jain meditation). Her parents-in-law did not like it at all. Even Buddhapriya repeatedly admonished her not to chant namokāra mantra or indulge in any other rituals. But Śrīmati, having complete and unconstrained faith in her religious belief, did not stop her practices of namokāra mantra. This irritated her scheming mother-in-law and she planned to eliminate Srimati. She also made her son join the conspiracy.
Buddhapriya went to a snake charmer and brought a black cobra in a pitcher. He put the pitcher on a table and addressed śrīmati, “Darling, look here, I have brought a garland of beautiful flowers for you. It is in that pitcher, take it out and adorn yourself.”
Śrīmati was in habit of chanting namokära mantra thrice before doing any work..........
....She paused, chanted namokāra mantra, and with a smile put her hand in the pitcher. She took out a beautiful and fragrant garland of fresh flowers. “Oh ! how beautiful !”, she asked her husband, "My dear, you should wear such a beautiful garland first."
She approached her husband with the garland in her hands. Her husband saw the hissing black snake instead of the garland and froze with panic. He stepped back fearfully, "No! No! not me. You must wear it.”
Hidden behind the door, the in-laws were also witnessing the proceedings, "O god ! black magic or what? The garland in the hands of śrīmatī, turns into a black cobra when it is brought near our son," they thought.
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