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Lord Mahâvîra: A Revolutionary
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Thoughts make Events
Potanpur was a beautiful town surrounded by bamboo grooves on all sides. One day Lord Mahâvîra came there with his disciples. King Prasannachandra went to pay his tributes. The Lord exhorted him on the evanescent nature of the world and said that renunciation leads to final beautitude. The king's heart was stirred and he decided to renounce all worldly relations. He became an ascetic and engaged himself wholly in severe penance and austerities. He would remain engrossed in meditation and concentration for days together.
Once it happened that he was standing in meditation under a banyan tree. His hands were stretched above and eyes were half opened, His mind was free from all passions and emotions. His thoughts remained static. Some members of the royal family passed by. Seeing him in that posture. One of them remarked, "Oh! What a saint! His goal is not very far." Another man opined that he was a hypocrite; and countinued that his heart is not pure. By giving the reins of the kingdom to his minor son, he has placed him under a heavy burden. I would say that he has cheate him. The young boy-king is not able to bear these great responsibilities. It strikes me that he will soon be deprived of his kingdom by his own ministers. Thus he will have to face many troubles.'
The monk heard these words and lost his balance of mind. Meditation and concentration both went off the board. His mind began to plan to safeguard the kingdom for his son. Thoughts were incessantly rising. Soon they crystallised into a clever stratagem to subdue the enemies who were planning to harm the boy-king.
Srenika, the king, went to Lord Mahâvîra to ask him about the lot of the saini Prasnnachandra, who was a great ascetic indeed. Mahâvîra observed, "If he dies just soon he will go to the first hell." Srenika was surprised to hear this. After a while, he put the same question "Second hell," said the Lord. The king was much more puzzled. He was in a quandary. He went on asking the Lord, again and again. With every answer, the stage of hell went deeper still. Finally the Lord declared, "Now if he was to die, he will go to the seventh, the last hell."
