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JAINA STORIES
And in the twinkling of an eye, a few armed men jumped on the messenger and made him lie flat on the ground. They spatched from him the minister's resignation and seal of office
When the news of the messenger's death reached the king, he started at once with an unsheathed sword in his hand He was under the impression that Sumitra had a hand in the murder on the highway, he met these armed men surrounding the dead body of the messenger. The king stopped and said,
"Who are you? Why did you kill my man ??
"We have come from Dharayas where reigos King Surasena Our purpose was to murder the minister, Sumitra, who extorts at exorbitant subsidy from our king As we reached here, this man was shouting 'I am the minister, and so our wrath fell on him but now we find tbat he was not the minister, and so our exertion has been in vain."
The king now chased them all with his naked sword and brought them down dead Thought he,
'It is good that Sumitra did not come. His yow has the saved him Otherwise, he would have fallen a victim to swords of these men This must be the outcome of religion, and, I feel, it has some practical utility.'
Instead of returning to the palace, the king proceeded straight to the house of the deposed minister, to whom he
said,
"Sumitra, today I am an eye-witness of the practical utility of religion. Had you not been under the vow, you would have been butchered And that would have been the greatest tragedy for the kingdom I am very sorry that I removed you from office. But I reinstate you"
This was a proper occasion for Sumitra to convert the king to the path of religion and he said many wise things to him Once the king met Acharya Purpachandra, when he accepted the vows of a srayaka This also had its impact on the deliberations at the court which now changed virtually into a spiritual assembly. On the advice of the minister Sumitra, the king now did many things for the good of his people
