Jain Stories 01

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

Page 56

32
JAINA STORIES
right. Amvada's objective was attained He not only won half the kingdom and the lamp, but also the hands of three ladies, the princess, the minister's daughter, and, of course, the gardener's daughter
"Now, Amvada started for Singhpur On the way, he heard a pitious lamentation and discovered a young lady with a dead child on her shoulders He obtained the following account from the lady
'I am the daughter of a gardener I am married in this city, and got a son But my son died during my absence from home, and I could not have a talk with him during his last moments. It is this that upsets me and now I have. decided to end my life by entering into a blazing pyre with this dead child.'
"Amvada tried to console her, duating at length on the transitoriness of life and uncertainty of human existence, but the lady would take nothing 'Tell me, sir, have I not a genuine cause to be aggrieved ?' said she very bitterly I couldn't talk with him during his last moments' Amvada told her that a dead person could not be restored to life, and enquired if she would feel consoled and happy, if the boy could be revived for some time to give tæe lady a chance to talk with him. She said, she would This was not difficult for him to arrange with his power to enter into another's body. The dead child now said, 'Mummy! Why do you weep? It is my karına that gave me a short span of life and we are helpless before it You be calm Bewail not my loss' The child was dead again.
"Amvada still remembered the forecast he had made as. holy woman to Rohini to the effect that her man was about to come, and that he would send her a vest made of flowers He now requested the gardener's daughter to