Jain Stories 02

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

Page 10

right path Then there are cases where a min h.-5 sipped from the right path to get wholly lost An account of such men serves as a useful warning. Quite ne number of stories uphold thc cause of women, the fallcn, thic downtrodden, the backward sections of the community. Jainism balıcve$ 133 the infinite capacity of the human soul and the corc massage ia Mahayıra's Krizovada is that man is the architect or his own fortunc provided he asserts as a master and remains not submissive as a slaic, The soul has no «cx or caste and nomatter whether it is encased at a moment in the frame of a woman or a sudra, vith right crcrtion, it is liahic to attain perfection and liberation
One importaot theme of many Jaina stories 15 tic ability of many monks to reveal the operation of Irma cffect in the life of man. In doing so, they have thrown light on the previous birth(s) of the questioner Sone have even gono to the extent of forecasting the shape of things to come, not like an astrologer, but like a true scct, telling 1112 questioner where his soul will go when it is dislodged from here. Not only monks, according to some short storics, cicn lay men had their long memory revived at the sight of a familiar personality or scene or at the occurence of som familiar event somuch so that they had their past lives revealed to them and this served as an inspiration to them to quit this muodane life which, in Jadian view, is a veritable bondage Though this type of hoorledge is now virtually lost, like many other good things of tbe old world, there is no reason why it should be rejected as a myth, since we have at any time present in India as well as outside many cases where an individual has been able to recollect his past life and give dependable evidence in support of it Though there is hardly any Jaipa monk living now who can reveal the past life of any questioner, there are quite a few, including the present author, who have demonstrated on many occasions a long memory through their avadhana technique.
Quite a number of Jaina stories are fictitious, a creation by some teacher or commentator to drive home a point or a difficult theme or a terse tenet, but quite a vast number