Jain Journal 1969 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 29

SHORT STORY
CANDANA
PURAN CHAND SAMSOOKHA
In those days, two thousand five hundred years ago, in northern India there was a great town called Kausambi.
Proceeding through the main street of the great town of Kausambi, a śramana, tall, fair, broad-chested and bare, goes with quiet steps to every house on either side and begs for food, and returning therefrom with empty hands without accepting any alms. His face radiates a light of infinite peace and immeasurable compassion and his mortified flesh is aglow with the fire of austerities. Walking or standing, he betrays not the least sign of disquiet for his failure to obtain alms.
Day after day, this great ascetic roams through the street of Kausambi in search of alms, but accepting nowhere, repairs to a grove on the out-skirts of the town, and peacefully enters into spiritual contemplation.
Who is this great ascetic ? Why is it that he comes out every day in quest of alms and returns without accepting it ?
He is śramana Mahavira. The period of his spiritual self-discipline has not yet come to an end he has not attained to kevala jñana and commenced preaching. Resolved to achieve a perfect development of