11.09.2016 ►JAINA ►Special Newsletter - Das Lakshana Day 6

My soul characterised by knowledge and faith is alone eternal. All other phases of my existence to which I am attached are external occurrences that are transitory.

- Bhagwan Mahavir

The word Sanyam has various meanings like check, restraint, control, prevention and mental concentration. Uttama Sanyam i.e., Supreme self-restraint is the sixth virtue to be cultivated by a man to counteract the four passions (Kashayas) i.e., anger, pride, deceit and greed.

There was a king. He was absorbed in sensuous pleasures day in and day out. The king owned a vast and beautiful orchard cum flower garden, in which multicolored flowers and fruits of the supreme variety grew and bloomed forever. The king was so lusty and led such a luxurious life that in order to satisfy his whimsical demand in numerous flowers of different varieties were brought daily to make a flowerbed for him. The king deemed himself very happy and delighted by sleeping in this bed.

One evening, the royal gardener's wife brought flowers to adorn the king's bed. As soon as she had spread the bed with fragrant flowers, she began to think, 'how lovely the flowerbed looks! God knows what bliss the king experiences by sleeping on it.' While pondering thus in her mind, she decided to sleep for five minutes only in that charming flower bed and feel the pleasure of it. She knew that the king was likely to come into the palace after a long time. Thinking this she lay down in the bed. She was dead tired of the whole day's work. As soon as she lay in bed, she fell in sound sleep. When at nightfall the king came into his royal bedroom and found the gardener's wife sound slept in his flowerbed, his eyes became bloodshot with rage. The king instantly pulled her from the bed catching hold of her ponytail, hurled her violently on the ground and beat her black and blue with a stick. But there was no sign of pain and sorrow on her face; rather she began to laugh loudly. When the king ordered her to make clear the reason of her laughing, the lady gardener replied, "Your majesty! I am laughing at the idea that when I had to bear so many hunter strokes simply for sleeping in this flowerbed for five minutes only, what will be your fate, who sleeps in this flowerbed every night? Why not you discard all these transitory worldly enjoyments and observe self-restraint in life?"

On hearing these eye opener words from the gardener's wife, the king thought in his mind what a great lesson this poor woman had taught him. Therefore, soon after this incident the king renounced all royal grandeur and got initiated to monkshood.

A man should not wait for an appropriate time to observe self-restraint. He should not think that he would practice self-restraint at a later stage of life; because death keeps no calendar.