Jain Story Book

Author(s): Manu Doshi
Publisher: Manu Doshi

Page 47

Sulasä spent the rest of her life strictly following the precepts of the Lord and gained heavenly life after her death. She would get reborn as the 15th Tirthankar of the next time cycle.
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KÄMDEV
After attaining omniscience at the age of 42, Lord Mahävir embarked upon his mission of showing the right path for the lasting happiness. Many people were convinced about the truth of his teaching and hundreds of thousands became the Lord's followers during his life time. Many of them renounced the worldly life and became the monks, but many more adopted his faith and continued as householders. Among them there were ten persons who were outstanding in their sense of devotion to the Lord and who scrupulously followed his precepts. Their lives are described in the Upasakdashäng Sutra which is the 7th of the 12 original Ägams that are collectively known as Dwadashängi.
Kämdev was one of those ten. He was a wealthy businessman of Champanagari which was located in the eastern part of the present State of Bihar. He had a lovely wife named Bhadra who had given him several smart children. He was a multi-millionaire. His liquid assets were worth 180 million gold coins and he was considered one of the happiest men of the time. According to the prevailing custom of that time he was maintaining 60 million gold coins in deposit, 60 millions on hand and 60 millions in trade. He also owned lot of land and had thousands of cows in his yards.
Once Lord Mahävir came to Champanagari and camped in a place known as Purnabhadra temple. Elaborate arrangements were made there for seating thousands of people who would come to the assembly for hearing him. As Kämdev came to know about the arrival of the Lord, he too decided to go to the Lord's assembly. During his sermon the Lord stated that following four things should be considered as invaluable, viz 1) human life, 2) listening to the truth, 3) conviction of the true faith and 4) putting the same in practice. These four are very rare and of paramount importance. In elaboration of that statement the Lord said as under.
'This soul has been undergoing the cycle of birth and death since the time immemorial. It is not possible to visualize any time when it was not undergoing the misery and pain peculiar to the species where it was born. To be born as human is very rare. That life is the most valuable, because only in that life one can strive to end the cycle of birth and death. For that purpose he needs to listen about the true nature of the soul from those who have realized it. After listening to that he has to be convinced about that truth. Thereafter if he puts into practice the precepts of those enlightened, he can be said to be on the right path for gaining lasting happiness. The life that we have gained is very fickle. No one knows when the death would overtake us. It is therefore in the interest of every one to strive for the well being of the soul without any delay.'
Kämdev was much impressed by the Lord's sermon about the fickleness of the worldly life and decided to follow his advice. Since he was not yet ready to renounce the worldly life, he was asked to observe the restraints laid down for the householders. In token of his decision to follow the Lord, he formally undertook to observe the twelve restraints of the householders. His wife Bhadrä also became the Lord's follower and adopted the restraints applicable to a female householder.