Jain Stories 01

Author(s): Mahendramuni, K C Lalwani
Publisher: A B Jain Shwetambar Terapanth Samaj

Page 21

XVI
partly because my hands were already full with no less worthwhile things, and partly because I have no taste for literary production or reproduction. But ultimately I had to accept the job which I completed by 1972, putting it mostly through my hours of odd jobs like rail travel or hours of relaxation. Although I have never felt very happy about the form in which they have beed presented. in Hindi, I have myself not dared to change it in my English rendering.
2
51
The first volume for which the stories have beed selected by the Muni has two big stories and three small ones. The Amvada story which is the first one does not have much Jaina content about it and makes an excessive use of supernatural things Amvada was a contemporary of Mahavira and a very ambitious man and he was favoured by luck, so that he could rise to the pinacle of power, glory and wealth. Towards the end of his life, he met Mahavira, and then Sulsa, a pious lady who was an extremely devoted follower of Mahavira The Munipatı story, which is the second one, illustrates how the fructification of some impious karma put a sincere monk, who was formerly a king, to the severest ordeal in his life. The story develops in the form of a dialogue between the monk and a merchant who was his benefactor and host in the course of which many stories have been cited from both the sides At last, the monk's innocence is established and he is honorably acquitted. An appendix to the Munipati story is a small story entitled Antukarı Bhatta which high-lights in the life of a woman the evil consequences of anger and a subsequent reaction which rooted her in peace and equanimity The fourth story entitled Kamaghata establishes the supremacy of virtue over vice. The last story illustrates the operation of auspicious karma acquired in a previous birth in the life of a young man who was in the early part of his