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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completely to his mother. In Jain history, along with the name of rya Rak ita as a compiler of the Anuyogas, the name of the priest Somadeva and more specially the name of Rudrasom a will remain forever.
Female monk war (Last Decade of 6th Century V.N.)
Right from the descent into the mother's womb till death, man is constantly surrounded by problems, either big or small. When the moments of grief and misery pass by, man forgets about the griefStricken days and runs in search of the mirage of happiness. Once more he is encircled by sorrow and grief and once more he forgets them. Out of lakhs of people, seldom there is a person who learns from sorrows and difficulties and engages himself in the quest of eternal happiness.
The name of female monk war appears first in the list of such rare personalities. The horrible famine resulted in the immense scarcity of food. Unable to bear the of pangs of hunger, Jinadatta, a wealthy merchant of Sop raka Nagara, his wife war and their four sons decided to die by consuming poison mixed food. Even after spending one lakh coins, Jinadatta with great difficulty could procure only two handfuls of grain for their last meal. war prepared the food and was about to open the packet of lethal poison to mix in it. At that very moment, Vajrasena, the then epochal- c rya, appeared at the door. Considering that at the vicious moment of nearing-death, the manifestation of a monk at their door-step was an auspicious omen, war with overwhelming joy, offered salutations to the monk.
Seeing the lethal poison which was still in the hands of war, rya Vajrasena asked the reason. When he came to know the actual situation, he recalled the words predicted by his Guru. On the basis of the prediction of his teacher, rya Vajrasena said, “O Noble Lady! There is no need to mix poison in the food. Plenty of food will be available starting tomorrow”.
Having immense faith in the words of the monk, war kept the packet of poison aside. Giving in to the repeated entreaties of war, rya Vajrasena partook two morsels of the unblemished food.
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