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Stories Of The Sadhviji
Jain Education International
Jain Society of Greater Detroit
PRATISHTHA MAHOTSAV JUNE 27-JULY 6 1998 AR
SADHVI MADANREKHA
Queen
Madanrekha was a
woman of incredible beauty. So incredible was her beauty in fact, that her husband's older brother, wanting to marry her, killed his own brother. Madanrekha was pregnant but being very religious, asked her husband to forgive his brother and die peacefully. To protect herself from her brotherin-law after her husband's death she hid in the jungle and there gave birth to a son.
Once when an elephant tossed her in the sky a vidhyadhar dev (a type of angel) saved her but he was also smitten by her incredible beauty and wanted to marry her. The helpless Madanrekha made the condition to the vidhyadhar dev that he must take her to Nandishwardweep to pray in the eternal temples. Vidyadhar dev took her there and after listening to a chaaran muni (a sadhu who has the power to fly through the universe), he became religious-minded and lust-free. Another dev who had also come to pray was Madanrekha's husband, reborn as a dev after a peaceful death with her assistance. He came and bowed to her and brought her back to earth. Madanrekha took diksha and observed it well.
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