________________
144
JAINA STORIES
scarch of him. As she was cut to the city, she was Handcring armlessly when she came across the body of a young boy. Out of compassion for lum, the queen placed him on her lap. She felt the boy was perhaps not yet dead. But really the boy was dead and the quccn was mistaken. Just then some of the hing's guards came that way. She saw a woman with the dead body of a child with her They took it to be a case of infanticide or somc such thing, and on a charge or killing the child, they arrested her and brought her before the king The king pronounced a capital punishment for her too, and she was taken to the cxccution ground, where her husband was also awaiting his own crccution. The coincidence and meeting were thus icry striking
Said Bhadrasingh to bis wife,
"Now the time for our liberation is drawing neor IL will be a chance to cad this miserable life and start afresh, Have patience Be firm in spirituality Remember the truth. Give up the meditation of the miserable and be stcady. This is no punishment, but the termination of a miserablc life?
Bhadrasingh bad passed through many dificult ciperiences in life He was now almost at the last thresbold of it But one more test, the final one, so to say, still waited for bim As the couple stood ready for being hanged, the same god came there as a brahmin. The brahmin cxpressed great sympathy for the couple and said,
“Sir! You appear to be a man of great fortune from whom the world is to derive much benefit I wonder, how you are here with the executioner's rope round your neck ?”
In a very calm voice, the king said,
“We are ksatriyas but convicts We cannot deny this at this supreme moment of death
The brahmin said,
"Our king who is a ksatriya has a very great regard for all ksatriyas He believes that a ksatriya can commit no crime and he is above capital punishment' So my suggestion is that if you take meat only once, he will be convinced that you are a ksatriya, and then he will spare your life That will save your life. That will be an easy way out for you
