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NARRATIVE TALE IN JAIN LITERATURE
93
it, though he is in good health, yet changes...(to a condition which is bad in every respect)..., even thus, Kālodai, souls change... (to a condition which is bad in every respect)...if they take unto themselves the hurting of beings, untrue speech, misappropriation, sexual stimulation, possession, anger, pride, deceit and greed, love and hate, strife, slander, gossip and back-biting, dislike and liking, lying and deception, and that thorn of false belief. Thus it comes about, Kālodāi, that souls perform evil deeds, from which evil fruits ripen. But if a man eats delicious food...mixed with wholesome substance, and though he is not in good health when he consumes it, but yet changes afterwards...(to a condition which is good in every respect), even so, Kālodāi, souls change, when they incorporate abstinence from hurting...from false belief, that thorn... (to a condition which is good in every respect).. Thus it comes about Kālodãi, that souls perform good deeds, from which good fruits ripen” (7, 10).5
VI THE PARABLE OF FOUR DAUGHTERS-IN-LAW In the ñātņdharma-kathā the following parable of four
daughters-in-law is related.
A merchant had four daughters-in-law. In order to put them to the test, he gives each of them five grains of rice with orders to preserve them carefully until he shall ask for them back again. The first daughter-in-law throws the grains away, and thinks to herself : “There are plenty of grains of rice in the larder, I shall give him others instead." The second thinks in the same way, and eats the grains. The third daughter-in-law preserves them carefully in her jewel-casket. But the fourth one plants the grains, and reaps; she again sows the harvest and reaps again, until at the end of five years she has accumulated a large store of rice. Then the merchant returns and punishes the first two daughters-in-law, assigning them the meanest tasks 5. After the translation by Schubring, Die Jainas (Rel. Leseb.),
p. 15 f., 19 f.
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