Jain Story Book

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 26

Shortly after that, Dhanävah had to go out on a business trip for three days. Mulädevi decided to make use of his absence. She called a barber and a locksmith. Long black hairs of Chandanbälä were the immediate cause of her jealousy. Chandanbälä's head was therefore shaved. Then, she was put into chains and locked in a dark, remote room without any food or water. Mulädevi thought that the girl would die of thirst and hunger. There was a maid servant who was strictly asked not even to go near that room nor to report anything to Dhanävah.
True to her religious orientation, Chandanbälä did not fight back. She did not blame Mulädevi for what she had done to her. She accepted that situation as the consequence of her earlier Karma. She did not harbor even bad feelings towards Mulädevi because she used to respect her as a mother. She decided to use the period of confinement for fasting and for spiritual meditation and spent most of the time thinking about the nature of soul and reciting Navakarmantra.
On the 4th day, when Dhanävah returned, he expected Chandanbälä to receive him with warm water as usual for cleaning his feet. As she did not turn up, he thought that she might be sick. He, however, could not see her in the family room or anywhere else in the house. After finishing his bath, as he came to the dining room, food was served to him by his wife. He had to ask 'Where is Chandan?'. Mulädevi replied that he had spoilt her by too much fondling; she always roamed outside while he went out for work and that this time she had gone away, no body knows where, since the day he had been out.
It was hard for Dhanävah to accept what his wife was stating. He knew Chandan very well. He could hardly eat. Rising from his seat he started looking all around for Chandanbälä who was so dear to him. He went round all the rooms and corners of his house. That solitary remote room however did not even occur to him, because that was treated as condemned and he hardly even went that side. Failing in his search he got too much upset, his heart was crying. He even tried to enquire the maid servant, but she couldn't say anything, because Mulädevi was all the time watching her.
The maid servant respected Dhanävah; she even had soft corner for Chandanbälä. She could not face the miserable condition of her master. When Mulädevi got out of sight for a moment, she pointed out that remote room to her master. He immediately rushed there and broke open the tottered doors. It was however too dark inside for anything to be visible at first sight. After a while he could faintly see the starved body of Chandanbälä in chains. He could not believe that so tender a girl could have survived for three days without food and water. Luckily for him she was not dead. He picked her up in his arms and brought her to the living room area. To his astonishment he found that all the rooms there were locked.
As Mulädevi saw him rushing to that remote room, she caught fright that what she had done would no longer remain secret. She was sure that her husband would punish her for her wickedness. In order to escape his instant wrath, she hurriedly locked the rooms and sped to her parents' home. Her husband was eager to find some food and drinks for Chandanbälä but he was nonplussed to find every place locked. He lay Chandanbälä on the floor of verandah and looked around if there could be something that she could eat. At last he spotted a pot of black peas soaked in water. There was however no serving bowl. He therefore picked up a winnowing pan. Taking out black peas from water in that pan, he gave them to Chandanbälä and rushed out to call locksmith for breaking her chains.
Chandanbälä took the pan. For a moment she thought about the changes that had come in her life. From being a princess she was reduced to the position of a miserable starved girl who had nothing to eat but the soaked peas and that too in a winnowing pan. She laughed at her fate. Before, however, she put the peas in her mouth, she remembered that she was on fast for three days. 'Would it not be possible for me to offer food to a monk before I terminate my fasts?' she thought.