Jain Story Book

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 17

King Prajapal was ruling there. By his queen Rupsundari, he had two daughters named Sursundari and Mayanasundari. They were very beautiful, smart and intelligent. The king loved both of them and had made adequate arrangements for giving them training in all the arts and crafts. The girls mastered all of them in due course. Once the king decided to test their knowledge and called them in the assembly. He first asked number of questions to Sursundari who gave satisfactory replies to all of them. At the end, the king asked her by whose favor she got all her skill and also the comforts, amenities and luxuries that she could enjoy. The girl humbly replied that she gained all that by his favor. The king was pleased with her replies and decided to reward her appropriately.
Then came the turn of Mayanäsundari. She too gave satisfactory replies to all his questions. At the end, the king put the same question that he had put to Sursundari. He had expected that Mayana too would give the identical reply and thus please him. Mayana had full faith in religious philosophy that she had studied at length. She therefore replied that everything that she had got, must have been the result of her Karma. She must have earned wholesome Karmas in the past that resulted in the happy situations that she was undergoing. If she did not have that Karma to her credit, no one on the earth could bestow happiness on her. The king was exasperated to hear the unexpected reply. He repeatedly asked her to consider how she could have obtained anything but for him. Mayana replied that everything right from her being born as his daughter up to her present situation could occur solely as consequence of her operative Karmas and no one could have made any difference anywhere.
The king got wild by that unexpectedpersistence. He could not believe that the girl could have got anything but for his favor. He could not buy her theory that everything happens according to one's own Karma. He therefore decided to teach her the lesson, the hard way. He asked his men to find out the most wretched man in Ujjayini. The men spotted Umar Ränä for the purpose and brought him to the court. In utter disdain the king instantly got Mayana married to Umar. He gave them some badly needed things and a small house and asked Mayana to undergo the result of her Karma. Rupsundari got very unhappy at the sudden turn of events in her daughter's life, but she could not speak anything against her husband's will. On the other hand, the king looked out for a suitable match for Sursundari in appreciation of her replies and got her married to prince Aridaman of Shankhapuri.
Mayana was deeply religious. She accepted Shripäl in the guise of Umar as the husband destined by her Karma. She took all possible care for him. She used to go to temples and to listen to the sermons of Sadhus along with him. Once she happened to go to Acharya Munichandra who was a well known scholar of that time. He advised her that devotional worship of Navapada can cure all types of diseases and advised her to practice that. Accordingly, Mayana and Shripal devoutly observed Navapada worship with all its rigors. The result was miraculous, Shripal's skin disease started fading. In due course, he got totally cured of the leucoderma and regained the skin that he used to have prior to contracting the disease. Now he looked like a handsome prince that he had been. Mayana was very happy and blessed her Karma for that change too. Since the change was apparently brought out by devotion to Navapada, both of them continued to observe it even after that.
Once while they had been to a temple, Rupsundari happened to see them. She was shocked to see that her daughter had been with that handsome man instead of the leucodermic one with whom she was married. Mayana understood her anxiety and explained in details whatever had happened. Rupsundari was very much pleased to hear that. Now she could boldly tell the king that Mayana's persistence about the theory of Karma had proved right. The king could also see the truth. Deep in his heart, he used to curse himself for bringing misery in his lovely daughter's life. Now, he too got happy and invited the daughter and son in law to stay with him in the palace.Luckily Shripal's mother too arrived at the place and hapily stayed with them.