Book Title: Treasury of Jain Tales
Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Previous | Next

Page 243
________________ 186 father opened several free boarding houses throughout his country. Plenty of food also was given to the poor people. Malli went on distributing her charities like this every morning for one full year. Several of the Lokäntika gods in the Brahmaloka organised themselves into enormous groups and burst out singing, dancing etc., to mark the occasion of Malli's initiation. They blessed her and hoped that she would bring happiness and eternal bliss to the whole of mankind. They bowed down to her before they went back to their own abodes in heaven. Malli then sought the permission of her parents to shave her head and enter the religious order. Her father readily agreed and gave orders to prepare for the initiation ceremony of the tirthari kara, gods like Camara Asurendra, Acyuta, Sakra (Indra) accompanied by abhiyogika gods participated in the ceremony. At the end of this, Malli was carried in a palanquin in a gorgeous procession to Sahasrāmravana park and placed under an Asoka tree. The other six kings headed by Jitas atru listened to an eloquent discourse by Malli and were duly initiated as monks. Malli collected her own disciples consisting of twenty eight groups of monks and an equal number of chief monks. She had in all forty eight thousand monks and fifty five thousand nuns and several other lay devotees. In their company she wandered in the central region of the country and on the top of the mountain Sammeta she finally renounced her life and achieved salvation after a life span of fifty five thousand years. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468