Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 367

OMNISCIENCE OF MAHĀVĪRA
327
"Pious lady, there is an excellent muni, devoted to the fivefold practices. He has a young disciple, unsteady like a monkey. The young disciple, having fallen away from the practices of sadhus, impelled by the memory of restraints, et cetera, very badly behaved, becomes angry. The guru gave zealously instruction in the practices, hard to listen to, to the young disciple, for it is said in the scriptures: 'Let an enemy be angry or not; let it appear like poison or not, beneficial speech must be spoken, productive of good qualities in one's own followers.' He paid no attention to the guru's admonitions, harsh or gentle. For the guru's words are powerful in the case of a disciple with light karma.
One day the ācārya went in his wandering to Girinagara and climbed Ujjayanta with the young disciple. The evilminded disciple, after he had paid homage to the god, let loose a large stone to crush his guru as he was descending the mountain. When he heard the noise, khaḍa, khaḍā, squinting his eyes, the guru saw the rock falling like a round thunderbolt. His legs being bent in a circle, the stone passed between them. Generally calamities do not prevail over an intelligent man.
Angered by that act, the guru cursed the young disciple, 'Wretch, you will break your vow from the presence of a woman.' The young disciple said, Guru, I will make your curse false. I shall live in a forest where I shall not see a woman.' At once, evil-minded, he left the guru as well as the bounds of propriety and, like a tiger, entered a forest devoid of humans. Always standing in statuesque posture in the proximity of a mountain-river, he broke his fast of a month or a fortnight with grapes, et cetera. While the muni was practicing penance thus in the proximity of a river, the rainy season appeared, with the sky covered with clouds. From the excess of water rivers broke both banks like two families, going on the wrong roads, like unchaste women. The river being in flood, its bank occupied by the young disciple, the goddess, devoted to the commands of the holy Arhats,
"