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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision He walked a little way further and thought, "If I show these to the guru, he will give me half of them. Let me then eat eight vadas." Then the disciple walked on, halted and ate half of the vadas each time. At last there was, but one vadun left with him. The guru asked the disciple, "Why is there only one vadun? What became of the other vadas ?" Then as the disciple ate the vadun he said, "This is how I ate them." The disciple was simple by nature, but intellectually he was dull.
During the period from that of the second Tirthankara to that of the twenty-third Tirthankara, people were simple and intelligent. In the times of the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, Bhagwan Mahavira, and in later times, people are found to be crooked (vakra) and dull. Today simplicity has been all but lost. Simplicity is taken for silliness and roguery is taken for cleverness. Man's intellect has reached great heights, but his heart goes on contracting. Forgiveness without simplicity is formal. So, in these days of crooked-dull people, we need to cultivate the virtue of forgiveness. When we say, "May all sentients forgive me my offences !", we need not have any inferiority complex, We should feel ourselves uplifted. Pride should melt. We should have a firm conviction that the other persons are just like us in all respects.
In the times of Bhagwan Mahavira, Chandapradyota, the lustful king, broke into the house of the royal sage Udayan who lived a lotus-like life. He came riding on a ferocious elephant, named Analgiri, carried off from Udayan's palace a beautiful maid-servant and a sandalwood idol from his temple. These were not ordinary things, the maid-servant and the idol. At the time of her death, Udayan's dear wife Prabhavati had asked the king to worship the idol and to take care of the hunch-backed
Kshamapana maid-servant. Seeing this idol, Udayan gradually tried to reduce his wailings over his wife and the delusion of samsara. The hunch-backed maid-servant, who worshipped the idol, became temple attendant. Meanwhile, a gentleman from the Gandhara kingdom came to worship this divine idol. On account of the fatigue of the journey and the change of climate, he fell ill. Seeing this condition of her God's devotee, hunch-backed maidservant took pity on him, nursed him well and cured him. In return, the gentleman gave to the maid-servant a medicinal gold-pill to make her extremely beautiful. The maid-servant then longed to be a queen. Udayan lived a lotus-like life and so the maid-servant hinted Chandapradyota, the king of Avanti. Chandapradyota, the king of Avanti, carried the maid-servant off. The maid-servant brought with her the sandalwood idol which she worshipped everyday.
When king Udayan heard this news, his mind became restless. Chandpradyota had robbed him of his good name. As a dutiful king, he thought that Chandapradyota had outraged his dignity and became his enemy and the enemy should be killed. With all royal authority, he gave a call to ravage the kingdom of Avanti and to imprison or kill the king. But Udayan, the discriminate and religious king, knew that much injustice is done if one fights a battle in exitement. Along with the guilty, the innocent is killed. King Udayan, Bhagwan Mahavira's devotee, first sent his messengers, but Chandapradyota took this for cowardice. At last, Udayan called up his army. He decided to fight the battle with the least possible violence. The purpose was served by a duel between the two kings. On the battlefield of Avanti, Udayan, the royal king, and Chandapradyota, the king, fought like two clouds full
