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90
JAINA STORIES
Narmada Sundari. But because of the bondage of her past karma, she had to undergo so much trouble in this life."
On hearing this touching account of her previous birth, Narmada Sundari had at once a revival of her memory of that life and she could see that all that the monk had said: was correct She decided now to spend the rest of her life in the monastic order Accordingly, she was initiated in the order of nuns. In that order, she studied 11 Angas, the oldest canonical texts, and practised various penances. In the course of her wanderings, once in the company of puns, she arrived to her own city Chandrapuri People came out to listen to her The assembly included members of her own family, including her husband and father-in-law But none of them could recognise her But nun Narmada recognised them all The topic of her discourse that day was 'the technique of voice-reading' She spoke at length on this topic illustrating it from her own experiences with it On hearing this, Mahesvaradatta's mind went back to the day when his own wife Narmada Sundari had said some such thing which he did not care to believe If what the nun had said be correct, then, thought he, he had done a very wrong thing in discarding her in a lone island He could check himself no more and said,
“Great nuo 1 I had my first wife who was an expert in voice-reading But I could not appreciate her and gave a wrong interpretation of her expertise At last, I gave her up in a lonely island. I do not know what may have happened to her there. But after hearing you, I feel, I havedone a very wrong thing"
-"Have patience. I am the same person just referred to by you'
- Can it really be so ! Am I so fortunate as to set my eyes on my dear wife again ?”
"Yes, sir, what I say I mean "
At this point, the great nun gave an account of the past, high-lighting points which none except the husband and the wife alone knew. Mabesvaradatta was now fully convinced
