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Vada ] Nihnavavada
: 273: dant named Sahasramalla Sivabhūti, who being the king's favo urite, wandered in the city till late at night. His wife was very much annoyed by his irregular conduct. She once complained of his irregularities to her mother-in-law saying that she had to wait for her husband till late after midnight, without taking food and sleep. The mother-in-law asked her to go to sleep, and she herself waited till her son returned. After midnight, Sivabhoti returned and asked her to open the door. The mother being enraged at his behaviour, replied “O impudent boy ! go wherever the doors are open for you at this hour. Nobody is going to die after you.” Overwhelmed with anger and pride, he went away. In course of his wanderings, he found the doors of a Jaina Upāśraya open at such a late hour. The Jaina sādhus were studying their lessons at that time. He approached them and requested them to initiate him into asceticism, The ascetics refused to give him diksā as he was a Royal attendant and the permi. ssion to do so was not sanctioned by his mother etc. Conse quently, Sivabhūti accepted diksā by himself from an earthen spittoon lying there. The ascetics supplied him with the necessary apparel of an ascetic, and subsequently he entered the Jaina gaccha, as a Jaina Sadhu. Next day, all the sādhus proceeded on vihāra (going about from place to place ).
In course of time, it so happened that they returned to the same place. The king received them with great respect, and gave Sivabhati a kambalaratna (a costly woollen shawl). The preceptor asked Sivabhūti to renounce it, as it would create trouble in several ways. Still, however, Sivabhūti kept the shawl secretly with him without the consent of the preceptor. Being very much attached to the shawl, Śivabhati used to see it carefully every day after returning from his begging tour etc. But he never used the same for fear of being detected. The preceptor knew that Sivabhati was deeply attached to the woollen shawl, so, once he took the shawl in Sivabhati's absence, tore it into several small pieces and gave each piece of the shawl to every sadhu for the purpose of cleaning his feet. When sivabhoti came to know of this, his mind was greatly perturbed.
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