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________________ 12 Vasudeva at the confluence of two rivers. Jarākumāra informed the Pandava princes about the destruction of Dväravati and of Vasudeva's death. In their sorrow they left the kingdom to Jarākumāra and accepted their initiation from Dharmaghosa whom Aristanemi had specially sent. After they became monks the Pandavas were keen on meeting Aristanemi but this was not to be. He had already attained liberation. Balarama decided to do heavy penance and renounce the world. He went to the top of a mountain but he could not escape being reported to a king in the region by a group of wood-cutters who were impressed by his severe penance. The king suspected this unknown monk's intentions, perhaps he meant to deprive him of his throne. So he led an attack on him but Siddhartha, Balarāma's old charioteer saw the king's army marching towards Balarama created a ring of hideous and ferocious looking lions round Balarama. The king felt frightened and went away without disturbing the holy monk. On another occasion, when Balarama had gone to a village for alms, a woman saw him and felt so infatuated by him that instead of lowering a bucket in a well where she was drawing water, she tied the rope round the neck of her child and dropped it in the well. Balarama was shocked and he rushed up to save the child. He swore that he would never ask a woman for alms. A group of chariot makers went to the forest where Balarama was doing his penance. Once he asked them to give him some food which the leader of the group readily gave. A deer that was a devoted companion of Balarama, envied the chariot maker, who being human, could do such a service to the great sage and regretted his own unfortunate situation. Right at this moment, a great tree fell and crushed Balarama, the deer and the chariotmaker to death. All three went to heaven and were rewarded by being turned into gods. In course of time Balarama discovered Vasudeva in the third hell. He thought he could lift him out of his tortures but Vasudeva said it could not be done and should not be done. He advised Balarama to get people on the earth to put up at Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
SR No.006762
Book TitleTreasury of Jain Tales
Original Sutra AuthorN/A
AuthorV M Kulkarni
PublisherShardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
Publication Year1994
Total Pages468
LanguageEnglish
ClassificationBook_English
File Size17 MB
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