Jain Journal 1978 10

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

Page 29

JAIN JOURNAL
Within my self ? Nandisen began to be shaky. How that was possible ?
... But what he was seeing? He was seeing the graceful body, the beauty of a young lady. Her loosen bodice, untidy hair and her clothes ruffled by the wind. She was standing below the bluish shade of the Asoka tree as refreshing as the first approach of shower. That graceful golden hue of her body he knew not why ran in his veins with intense heat.
Nandisen took resolution that he would win over this hunger by fasting and more fasting
For continued fasting his body became slim but the glow of his golden complexion grew hundred times more like that of burnt gold.
After a long fast Nandisen went out for begging alms. But he knew not where he had come. Someone had brought him before the doorsteps of a beautiful house, white as a conch-shell, surrounded by groves of flowers guiding him all the way. He stopped in front of the door. It appeared to him that a light footstep, gentle and delicate moved inside crossing that door. He was astonished. And this astonishment of Nandisen grew still more when he saw an illusive woman standing before him with all the sweetness of music and absorbing all the sweet smell of the world. Her high breasts were sensitively adorned with a necklace, her cheeks were painted with sandal, her laughter likened the shafts of moonbeam and her lips were red as coral washed by the sea. Nandisen looked at her without a wink and began to think whether it was she who was in his heart? Was it she who will lie in his laps?
He felt more the hunger of the body than any hunger for food.
Illusive gladness of pleasure began to flash in the eyes of that bewitching woman. She was asking herself : Who is this lost young monk whose physical beauty is like that of a prince, whose youthfulness is like a pleasant garden though surrounded by the hardness of a recluse. Her eyes widened still more and her breathing became still more rapid.
It was that woman who first asked Nandisen: 'What ye want, oh Wise?
The music of her voice was much sweeter than the sweetest flute. On hearing that voice the hairs of his body stood in joy. Then to say something he raised his head but he could not say anything. He said only: ‘Alms.