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174
Book Review
SAMBODHI
action had I done in my previous birth so what I was subjected to the false accusation of a 'female demon'? With the ambrosial words the saint narrated, as follows, her previous births due to the consequential actions of which she was stigmatized.
“In this Bharatakşetra there ruled, in the city named Gamgāpura, a very brave king named Gamgadatta. He had a daughter named Gamgasenā from his wife named Gamgā. The daughter possessed a very noble character. In the same city, on listening, to the religious discourse from a Jain nun named Chandrasenā, Gāmgasenā realized the sense-objects as useless. With that nun some other run named Sāmgā, who had become detached, was undergoing penance. People used to bow down to her. There is nothing else but the good behaviour that would bring reputation (“Nānyadasti sadācārad aparam yaśase yatah”). Gamgā could tolerate her praise, and hence she gave a promise of non-fear, she instigated her saying that Samgā was a hypocrite in as much as she performs penane, while at night she eats flesh of a dead body like a female demon. Sāmgā tolerate this accusation with equanimity. The saint added: “O dear daughter ! You had earned a useless bondage of action and as a consequence roamed in various births and when some consequences of some good action was remaining, she was born as gain as a princess in Gamgapura, where being impressed by the Jaina religion, she adopted the vow of an ascetic, and performed intense penance. But since the penance was accompanied with fraud, and she died without performing the atonement. She was, therefore, born as Indrānī of lśānendra, and having fallen from there she was born as Rșidattā, the daughter of King Harisena and the queen Prītimatī. Due to the consequence of the previous action, you had to undergo the accusation as a female demon. The secret of destroying the evil action is endless and cannot be destroyed through suffering of unhappiness for hundreds of births of the beings (“Duskarmamarmabhiduram hi durantameva na kșiyate bhavaśatairapi dehabhājām").
"On hearing these words of the Jaina saint, Rșidattā was reminded of her previous births, and she observed everything directly with her eye heard all this the King, too, got detached, and he requested the preceptor to give him initiation of asceticism. The detached Rșidattā, too, requested the preceptor for initiating her as a female ascetic. The preceptor thought that it is not proper to delay, since in this useless world only the undertaking of penance is full of essence. The royal couple installed their younger son Simharatha on the royal throne, and themselves adopted the vow, performed
