Stories | Wisdom | Inspiration | Transformation
Stories from Jainism
This is at the time when Mughal Emperor Akbar was ruling India. One day he was sitting leisurely and looking outside from the window of his palace. He saw a grand procession passing by the palace. A lady was being taken in a decorated palanquin. There were merchants, businessmen, and their families who had dressed up in expensive clothes and jewelry taking part in this procession. King Akbar was...
Bahad Mantri, the Prime Minister of Patan in Gujarat had taken a union for a pilgrimage to the sacred Mount Shetrunjay. A thought came to his mind. He decided to build a grand temple of Lord Adinath atop Mount Shetrunjay. The local merchants and business people got to know about this. They were keen to contribute to this auspicious project. Late in the evening, they went to meet Bahad...
Not very long ago, a merchant by the name Savchand lived in a village of Vandhali in Gujarat. He had a big business of import and export. He had 12 ships that would carry goods to other countries to sell. In return, they would carry back the local goods of the country. Once his ships did not return on the expected date. He waited for a couple of days....
A Jain saint visited Bhadreshwar, a small village in Kutch, India. A merchant by the name of Jagdusha went to meet and pay his respect to the saint. Saint blessed the Jagdusha. He through his astrological knowledge cautioned on the upcoming great famine in the region that would last for three years. Every grain of food will be precious. The condition will be so bad that people would be...
King of Magadh, Shrenik Bimbisar set out on his horse for a forest outing. As he entered the Mandikuli garden, he saw a young and handsome monk meditating under a tree. His face glowed and looked very blissful. King Shrenik wondered why someone would renounce the world at such a young age. What sorrow and experience lead him to leave all the pleasures of life and take on the...
The last of the Tirthankaras, Lord Mahavira in his days of penance once decided to visit the village of Vachala. In the forest next to the village lived a deadly and poisonous snake whose gaze was enough to kill any living creature. Villagers were terrorized and never dared to venture into this forest. Mahavira decided to do his penance in this forest. As he passed through the village and...
King Prasannachandra (was also known as Prasenjit) was ruling the kingdom of Potanpur. He was a brave and righteous ruler. People felt happy, and secure under his rule. He had a beautiful wife and a charming young son. He was inspired by Tirthankar Mahavira’s sermons and was convinced that the well being of the soul was in renouncing the world. He was eagerly waiting for his son to mature...
Once there was a merchant who had five camels. He used to load all the goods on them and roam from town to town to sell the goods. Once he got late while returning home. It had become dark so he decided to take shelter at an innard near the roadside. He started to tie the camels to a tree with the rope. The four camels got tied properly...
King Shrenik was the ruler of the Magadha region in Bihar. He had a beautiful wife named Dharini. Once when she was sleeping, she saw a dream of a white elephant entering her mouth. She immediately woke up and share the dream with the King. King Shrenik knew that this was an auspicious dream. He called the dream experts who predicted that the queen would give birth to a...
Lord Rushabhdev or Adinatha, was the first Tirthankara of the Jains. After a successful long reign as a king, he decided to renounce the world and took Diksha (monkhood) to attain Moksha. He had a hundred sons. He entrusted the throne to his eldest son Bharat and gave the city of Vinita, also known as Ayodhya, whereas Bahubali the second eldest was bestowed with another large territory of the...
One evening some youths had set out for some fun and frolic outside the village of Ujjain. They came across a upashray (a place where the Jain monks stay) of an elderly monk by the name Chandarundracharya who was known for his anger and short-tempered nature. The youths decided to have some fun with the monk. There was one youth in their group who was to get married soon,...
So, they sought it out and went to the place where the elephant was kept. Each of the blind men touched different parts of the animal. In the case of the first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said “This being is like a thick snake”. The second one whose hand reached its ear, to him it seemed like a kind of fan. As for another person, whose...