Jain Lesson II

Author(s): JAINA Education Committee
Publisher: Diwakar Prakashan

Page 51

(Lesson 15 TRUE MONKS
Once upon a time, there lived a king. One day, he decided to offer gold coins to monks. He called one of his ministers and gave him a bag of gold coins. The king told him to give the coins to all the monks in the town
The minister searched for monks all day, but he could not find a single monk to give the coins to. He gave the bag of coins back to the king. The minister very politely told the king that the he could not find a monk to give the coins to. The king became very angry and said, "What is this nonsense! You could not find a single monk, in such a big city !" The minister admired the king for his good intention and said that real monks did not accept the gold coins. The others who did want to accept the coins, were not true monks, because true monks do not take money. He added that the king would not want to give gold coins to greedy people, who wear the clothes of monks but do not observe the religious principles. After listening to the explanation of the minister, the king became calm and started thinking. He realized that his minister was right and gave him one hundred gold coins as a reward.
True monks don't have or keep any wealth. Jain monks and nuns don't keep or ask for money for any reason. They don't ask anyone to collect and keep money for them either. They have given up all the concerns about their future needs and do not need any money. They may encourage you to give charities out of compasssion, but they don't get involved in its management.
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