Life and Stories of Jaina Savior Parcvanatha

Author(s): Maurice Bloomfield
Publisher: Maurice Bloomfield

Page 95

Story of King Vikrama as a parrot
once the river banked its waters to the right and to the left, became shallow, and the queen crossed.
After revering and feasting the Sage, she told him her story, and asked how her husband's inconceivable chastity could be valid. The Sage replied: When I took the vow, from that time on the king also became indifferent to earthly matters. But as there was no one to bear the burden of royalty, he kept on performing his royal acts, in deed, but not in thought. The king's chastity is valid, because his mind is unspotted, even as a lotus that stands in the mud.'
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The queen then bade adieu to the Sage, and asked him how she was to recross the river. The Sage told: ' You must say to the Goddess River," If that Sage, since taking the vow, has steadily lived in fast, then give me passage! The queen, in renewed surprise, went to the bank of the river, recited the words of the Sage, crossed, and arrived home. She narrated all to the king, and asked, How could the Sage be in fast, since I myself entertained him with food?' The king replied: You are simple, O queen, you do not grasp the spirit of religion: the lofty-minded Sage is, indifferent to both eating or non-eating. Mind is the root, speech the crown, deed the branch-expansion of the tree of religion: from the firm root of that tree everything springs forth.' Then the queen understood (286).
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Story of King Vikrama as a parrot, concluded
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When the queen had heard this speech of the parrot, she recognized the parrot's true character: My faltering mind was under delusion; this is the king, here speaks his voice!' She went to sleep rejoicing. Then the parrotking, noticing there a house-lizard, entered into it, that
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