Jain Story Book

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 13

Years back, Manirath was the king of Sudarshanpur. He had no issues. His brother Yugbahu was therefore nominated as the crown prince. Yugbähu had a beautiful wife named Madanrekhä They had a son who was named Chandrayash. After a few years Madanrekhä became pregnant once again. Manirath envied the good fortune of his brother and wished to get Madanrekhä as a wife. As he happened to see the graceful Madanrekhä in her pregnancy, he got too much enamored of her. Madanrekhä was however a faithful wife and did not respond to the gestures of the king.
But Manirath had become impatient to get her love. He thought that she would not yield as long as Yugbähu was alive. In order to gain her, he once managed to fatally wound Yugbähu. Madanrekhä had to fly towards a forest in order to save herself from lustful Manirath. There she developed the pain of delivery and gave birth to a lovely son. As she heard the sound of approaching horses, she got frightened that Manirath might be pursuing her. She could not make out what to do. She therefore left the child under a tree and concealed herself in the adjoining thicket. To her surprise she noticed that it was the king Padmarath of Mithilä. He carefully picked up the child and carried away with him. Madanrekhä sighed a sense of relief, because she knew that she was not in a position to rear up the child by herself. She then went to a neighboring city and renouncing the worldly life became a nun. The child that she had left was none other than Nami. Later on, she had learnt that after the death of her husband, Manirath had died of a snake bite and her son Chandrayash was crowned as the king of Sudarshanpur.
Nami knew very well the story of his being picked up by Padmarath. He thought that if what the nun said was right, Chandrayash was his elder brother. He also knew that a nun had no reason to fabricate a story. In order, however, to be sure he requested her for the proof of her statement. The nun replied that she herself was Madanrekhä and had been there only to prevent the brothers from indulging in highly sinful war. Now Nami had no reason to doubt. He obediently bowed to her and retreated to Mithilä сonveying a message to Chandrayash that the latter was his elder brother. As such, he did not want to continue the fight and was therefore retreating. When Chandrayash heard the story, he realized the futility of the worldly life. He therefore handed over his territory to his brother Nami and renounced the worldly life. Thereafter Nami ruled happily for a long time.
Once, Nami happened to develop burning sensation all over the body. The sensation steadily grew and eventually it became so intense that Nami could no longer bear it. All the queens were perturbed to notice the pain that Nami was facing. The physicians were called for examining him and they prescribed application of sandalwood paste. For that purpose the queens themselves started making paste by grinding sandalwood on hard stone. Thereby, the bangles on their hands created jingling sound. But the sound arising out of the bangles of all the queens together made a sort of turmoil that Nami could not bear on account of the pain. He therefore asked them to work calmly. Thereupon the queens kept only one bangle on each hand and removed the rest. That stopped the sound altogether. Nami liked the prevailing silence but wondered whether the queens had discontinued preparing the paste. Feeling impatient, he asked whether the paste was getting ready. The queens replied that they were busy doing that but that no longer made any noise because they had retained only one bangle on each hand.
This made an unexpected impact on the mind of Nami. He felt that multiplicity gave rise to unnecessary hustle and bustle, while peace lay in solitariness. Pondering over the matter, he realized that ultimately every one has to leave the world alone. In that case, what is the real purpose of all the worldly connections? This sort of contemplation led him to the sense of detachment for everything. He made up his mind that on recovery from the pain, he would renounce the worldly life and become a solitary monk. And accordingly he did, as he recovered soon after. As a monk he undertook severe penance and meditated in complete loneliness. Even the heavenly beings were impressed by his penance and acute sense of detachment.
Once Indra, the heavenly king, decided to test his detachment. In the guise of a learned Brähmin he came to the place where Nami was penancing. One after another he pointed out to Nami that