Jain Legend Vol 2

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

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c rya Sayyambhava
After Lord Mah v ra's third successor Prabhava Sw m, in 75 V.N.
c rya Sayyambhava became the fourth Pontiff. He was a great scholar and a Brahmin of Vatsa lineage. At the age of 28, impressed by the sermons of crya Prabhava Sw m, he got initiated into rama a Dharma, leaving his young wife behind.
Seeing the young wife left helpless, the townspeople grieved, “None else in the world can be as hard-hearted as Bha a Sayyambhava to leave behind a young, beautiful and chaste wife and embrace an ascetic life. At least if she had a son, she would have led her life with some hope and support and her life would not have been so arduous.
B lar i (Child Monk) Ma aka
The day Sayyambhava took initiation, the same day the women in the neighbourhood asked his wife, "Sarale! Do you hope that you have the light of the Bha a family in your womb?”
The demure face of Sayyambhava's wife blushed like a rising sun, who trying to conceal her face in her sari, answered them with a little smile in the then prevalent language, “Ma agam” (Ma aka) which means - Yes! There is something.
The news spread at lightning speed from ear to ear, to the kinsmen of Sayyambhava Bha a and to the town-dwellers and everyone was delighted and felt contented.
The birth of a son in the Sayyambhava family at that time was like a sprinkling of the nectar of hope in the distressed life of his mother. The word she said “Ma agam" announced his arrival into this world; hence the boy was named "Ma aka". His mother showered lot of affection and fulfilled her responsibilities both as a father as well as a mother in upbringing him.
Like the moon in the second phase, the boy Ma aka grew up and entered into his eighth year; he played with the boys of his age and at the same time studied well. Right from the beginning the boy, Ma aka was an
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