Jain Journal 1979 01

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

Page 19

JANUARY, 1979
105
sweet fragrance of the warm breathing. No smell of flower is so exhilarating. But at the next moment he pushed her aside crying 'burning, burning'. Was she then a poison-girl whose touch created a burning sensation ? Sagar, her groom, left not only that pleasure house that night but left the city of Campa also leaving no clue of his whereabouts. How could she bear this tragedy all her life?
There was no end of worries of his father Sagaradatta. Sukumarika was his only daughter. He gave her in marriage to her equal, but ways of karma were very difficult to predict. Otherwise, how the touch of a beautiful woman could bring burning sensation ? What could he do ?
No, he could not do anything. Because, even setting aside the social rules, ignoring the practice of the gentle, he gave her in marriage to another young man, so that she may be happy. But the happening of the first night repeated itself. He also like Sagar left the pleasure house crying 'burning, burning' and vanished never to return.
A pea-hen cried from behind the leaves of the Tamala tree, but in the life of Sukumarika the gladness of the Pea-hen at the advent of rains will never echo.
Days passed by. So the months and years. A day loomed like a yoar. But there was no end of Sukumarika's unbearable life. Now and then she thought of ending her life. What's the utility of bearing it like this? One day she would get down in the pool not to rise again.
Her father could guess the intention of her inner heart. Warning her he said, 'My daughter! Don't try to end your life in haste. It's not worthwhile. You have to bear this ordeal in the next life. Behind all this is the ill-karma of your previous life. So be patient and try to destroy it by practising dharma, so that your future life may be bright.'
These words of her father brought some solace to her troubled mind. She said, 'Father, then I should take initiation as nun.'
Sagardatta drew a heavy sigh then replied, 'As your pleasure, my daughter.'
Sukumarika took initiation from the nun Gopalika. Now she began to forget herself by religious practices, austerities and fasting, but she could not forget the desire of warm kisses of her first youth and the dream of close embrace. She could feel that the lotus-bud of her life was still