Jain Stories 03

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

Page 25

SURASUNDARI
Then Surasundari described the chain of cvents upto the day when she came to live at the vidyadhara's place and added,
"For many days, I lived there happily But I wanted to meet you Then I divulged my mind one day to the vidyadhara and acquired from him the power to transform Then the yidyadhara left me at the park in Benatat There I changed myself into a man Then I went to a gardener and lived with him for quite some time I gave him enough money so that he had no reason to be dissatisfied One day, It occured to me that I should attain fame by performing some wonderful deeds I discovered a new method of treatment for malaria It was not an usual drug to be taken orally, but a hand-fan made from herbs which cured the fever. The price was fixed at one lakh and twenty-five thousand But it did not sell It appeared to be too costly"
She continued,
"Now it so happened that the son of a big merchant in the city was suffering from the same disease Best doctors were called in but they could not cure bim At last, somebody brought the news about this magic fan to the merchant As a last chance, he bought the fan and fanned his son with it The boy was cured The merchant was highly pleased and presented the fan to the king The king was amazed to learn about its utility, and he desired that the producer of this wonderful thing should be brought to the court This is how I got my introduction at the court to reward my merit, the king desired to bestow some gift I asked for the post of a customs-officer, because as the customs-officer, I thought, it would be easy for me to detect every ship that came to this port, and thus find you out some day"
Throwing light on her other achievements, she said,
“Once a band of thieves came to the city All efforts on the part of the police to catch them failed One day, they looted the king's treasury and removed a huge quantity of gold and ornaments The king was very much worried