Lay Followers
Aramashobha and the Grateful Snake
Aramashobha and the Grateful Snake is a Jain story from the Lay Followers collection about compassion, forgiveness, devotion, karma and gratitude. Vidyutprabha grazes her father's cattle on a treeless plain while her stepmother sits at ease. When she shelters a hunted snake in her lap, it rewards her with a garden that travels over her head, and the garden brings her a king. But a stepmother with a daughter of her own has not finished with her. A long read on kindness, jealousy and forgiveness, adapted from a medieval Shvetambar story collection.
| Teaches | Compassion, Forgiveness, Devotion, Karma, Gratitude |
|---|---|
| Collection | Lay Followers |
| Tellings | The full story (20 min) |
| Who it suits | For grown-ups |
| Tradition | Shvetambar telling |
| Thought to keep | A kindness done long ago can still be giving shade when we have forgotten it. |
Read the opening of Aramashobha and the Grateful Snake
The opening of the story
In the land of Bharat there was once a village called Sthalashraya, and for a whole yojana around it there was not a single tree. Nothing grew there taller than grass, and the sun beat down on the plain from morning to evening. In that village lived a Brahmin named Agnisharma, with his wife Jvalanashikha and their little daughter Vidyutprabha, whose name means the glow of lightning.
When Vidyutprabha was eight years old, her mother died, and the whole house fell onto her small shoulders. She rose before light and milked the cow. She swept and scrubbed and plastered the kitchen floor. She drove the cattle out to pasture, drove them home at midday, served her father his meal and only then ate her own, and went back out with the herd until sunset. In the evening, tired to the bone, she still had the housework to finish.
Read the whole story of Aramashobha and the Grateful Snake See plans
What Aramashobha and the Grateful Snake teaches
Values Compassion Forgiveness Devotion Karma Gratitude
To carry into the day
A kindness done long ago can still be giving shade when we have forgotten it.
To talk about together
Aramashobha twice begs for mercy for the woman who tried to kill her. What do you think made that possible for her?
Sources
Retold for JainStory from the traditional story and checked against 3 published sources:
- archive.org (2 pages)
- wellcomecollection.org
- Jain eLibrary (5 pages)