Stories From Jainism

Author(s): Mrugendramuni
Publisher: Jain Yoga Foundation

Page 54

corn fields. There was a pleasing gurgling of the running water. This attracted the young sadhu and he stood there.
On hearing the sweet sound, Atimukta was reminded of his childhood days when he had sailed a paper boat in a rivulet. His sister Champa had also sailed a paper boat, His boat had reached the bank, but, unfortunately, Champa's boat had tilted and sank. But Champa had cried “Look, your boat is going down." Atimukta had then got angry at her wileness and given a slap to his sister saying, “You are lying."
Ofcourse, it was a lie on the part of the girl.
Atimukta was, perhaps, lost in his reveries. He came to the running brook very slowly. And he put his wooden begging bowl into the water. He began to watch the drifting bowland exclaimed, “It is all a lie. Look here, mine is floating along!"
His fellow disciples were wonder-struck at this. They tried to explain to him his reverie. But he did not pay any heed to what they said.
So, all the monks left him there. The monks were now full of doubt. They began to wonder why the Guruji had initiated such a child into monkhood.
It is only the Lord who knows why. He had accepted this child as his disciple. The Lord did not think or act as a common man. His vision was different from that of a layman. Hence, they thought, “We have no right to ask the Lord in this respect."