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Kavanusaaysna slighted others. The king felt perplexed at this and consulted Hemachandra. He gave his answer in the form of a parable from the Purāņas. The substance of it is as follows. 'A wife in her effort to win over her husband from another woman got him transformed into a bull unwittingly. She repented, and once, standing under a tree and grazing her bull-husband began to bewail her lot. The God Siva was passing through the heavens with his consort who heard the wailing of this unhappy woman and who asked her husband the cause and the remedy of it. Şiva said that in the shadow of the tree was growing a herb which could restore the human form. The woman heard this but did not know which was that particular herb; she drew a circle on the ground on which there was shadow and began to cut the grass and put it into the bull's mouth. When that particular herb, without her knowing it, was placed in the mouth of the bull he was restored to human shape. Hemachandra said, “ Just as that particular herb, even though it was unidentified, did its work, similarly in this iron age even though the truth is hidden, one may get its benefit by respecting all darşanas with proper devotion. That is a fact." ; (P. C. p. 70).
On other occasions Hemachandra is reported to have preached that ethical code which forms the common substance of all religions. *
Whether these stories are historical or not, they do indicate the spirit of Hemachandra's preachings to his royal friend. From the Anekānta point of view of Jainism, Hemachandra was doing just the thing that
* See the K. Prabandha of Jinamandana pp. 14 - 15.
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