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192
Lord Mahavira
chaste, you have taken a wrong decision in haste, and for this you will have to repent."
"To err is human, Senses and the mind are the two instruments of our knowledge. They never lead to a right decision, Don't depend upon them solely."
Srenika went back to his palace and asked Abhaya Kumar whether he had carried out his orders. This answer was in the negative, Srenika was glad. He immediately came to the queen and enquired about her murmuring in the sleep the previous night. She thus replied, “Yesterday, while I was passing through a hill side, I noticed a lonely house facing the hill. But it was in a dilapidated condition. There were many breaches and cracks in the house. It seemed that nobody had ever plugged in the breaches and repaired the cracks. In one of its corners a saint was standing in a meditative posture. His eyes were half closed, his hands were stretched downwards, and his feet close to each other. There was no movement whatsoever.
“The sun had gone down. The night was fast approaching. It was terribly cold. The strong cold wind was buffetting the standing monk. But he was neither shivering nor trembling. He was looking like a sculpture carved in white granite. Everything was quiet and peaceful except my curiosity and thoughts. Theyor were rising in succession as the billows in a fiery sea.
“I stood there gazing at the saint and his meditative posture. It appeared to me as though the body of the saint was made of hard steel to be able to stand all the severe tortures and pains of the cold draught. But I was not able to remain there due to the icy cold weather which was prevailing. I was shivering. I left that place and reached our palace. The face and the body—structure of the monk obsessed my thoughts. The whole scene was very much alive in my memory : particularly the howling cold wind and the perseverance of the monk overwhelmed me, and thoughts of his pluck and valour incessantly recurred as streams pouring into the river from all directions. The full image of the monk was featured in my mind, and I was completely overpowered by that masculine posture. I slept with a disturbed mind, Dreams came in succession. With the advance of the darkness of the night, the cold also became very severe. I was shivering even in my warm
