Jain Stories 03

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

Page 16

6
JAINA STORIES
Tears
now in such a dense forest? Where should she go? filled her eyes and she wept bitterly But soon she recovered She her strength Tears wont help in this trymg situation carefully tied the shells at the corner of her sari and uttered the namokar with all concentration she could command
Suddenly a thundering sound came from a nearby mountain She had never had an experience of such a terrible sound She was trembling As she looked in the direction from which the sound came, she saw a terrific monster standing before her Surasundari was very much afraid at this sight, but she did not lose her head On the contrary, she began to utter the namokar all the more loudly The monster seemed to be charmed at her beauty, and his furious face softened to a great extent In a mild tone he asked her,
"Who are you, my child? How did you come alone in this dense forest ""
By this time, Surasundari had regained her courage and understood that she had nothing to fear from him So she gave him a full account of herself The monster felt for her and asked her to live there as long as she liked, since, he added, he was the protector-master of the forest and would give her his full protection Surasundari accepted his protection and lived in a cave with a complete sense of security
One day, a ship anchored there to get some drinking water It belonged to a merchant All the passengers including the senior-most partner of the merchant began to walk on the sea-shore enjoying the natural beauty of the place Somehow the partner merchant reached a dense part of the forest and suddenly beheld Surasundari He was amazed to see such a rare beauty in a forlorn place like this.