Page 4 - Jain Jyotirdhar Chitra Darshan

[4] PUNYA SHRAVAK
(Content and Religious Devotion)

(1) In the province of Rajgrahi, a religious Jain named
Punya was living with his wife. Due to his misfortune he
could not earn more than 12 and half penny a day. (2) This
little income was sufficient for two of them. But, one of
them fasts on alternate day to offer food to Sadharmik
(fellow Jain) with the sense of reverence. (3) Even though
they were poor, they worshipped God every day with little
they had and were quite satisfied. They lived by the
philosophy of ‘Content is the real virtue of the Soul’. Hence
they would remain occupied in religious thoughts and
would carry out Samayik (to sit for 48 minutes for religious
activity as shown in the pictures) with equanimity. (4)
Once King Shrenik asked God Mahavir “How could he
avoid going to hell” God Mahavir replied “If you can obtain
the fruits of one Samayik of Punya then you can abstain
from going to hell. (5) The King met Punya and asked him
to give the fruits of his one ‘Samayik’ to him. Punya
replied “You can’t get the fruits of Samayik with money.
“Ask God that is it possible to give the fruits of Samayik ?”
When asked, God replied, “Even if you stake up the entire
riches of all Kingdoms, the value of one Samayik can not
be compared, because the kingdom is materialistic and
mortal while Samayik is spiritual and immortal and the
image of soul, therefore one cannot even compare it with
anything. Oh! what a satisfaction and self-content of
Punya Shravak despite severe poverty! Praises to the
virtuous Punya!