Jain Legend Vol 2

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

Page 122

invites only sorrows. It was well said by experienced elders that in pleasure are the fears of disease.”
Jamb Kum ra narrated an episode of a merchant to illustrate how one fantasises happiness in sorrow.
The merchant's episode
Once, a merchant with cart loads of goods was travelling to other lands along with a caravan. On the way he reached a dense forest. To facilitate his transactions while on the way, he took a bag laden with loose angels and coins and kept it on the back of a mule. By the time they reached the forest somehow the bag of coins broke open scattering the coins on the way. When the merchant became aware of this, he stopped all the carts and started picking up the scattered coins with the help of his servants. The guards of the merchants said to him, "Why are you risking millions of your money for the sake of a few coins. There is constant danger of being attacked by the thieves here in the forest. So let us move the carts fast".
The merchant did not heed the fitting advice of the guards. He said, “The profits in the future are unpredictable. In such a case, it is unwise to neglect the money I have now.” So saying he once again got busy in picking up the coins.
Leaving behind the merchant and his cart along with his loads, the rest of the merchants and the guards of the caravan proceeded further. The merchant continued picking the coins. Soon a gang of robbers noticed that he had no guards to protect him. They attacked him and looted all his money.
Jamb Kum ra said, “The men swayed by the frivolous and so called nominal pleasures, tend to desert the efforts to obtain Mok a. They keep wandering ceaselessly in this world drowned in the sea of unhappiness and sorrow, just like the merchant who for the sake of handful of coins lost his millions".
Introspection of Prabhava
The facts and arguments presented by Jamb Kum ra in a benevolent way opened the inner eye of Prabhava. A kind of excitement aroused in
122