Life of Bhagwan Mahavir
The Tear, the Lentils and the Light
The Tear, the Lentils and the Light is a Jain story from the Life of Bhagwan Mahavir collection about compassion, forgiveness, patience, devotion and perfect knowledge. The hardest years of the sadhana and their end. Goshalak learns the wrong lesson from a sesame plant and a burning power, and walks away. A proud god spends one night and six months trying to break Bhagwan Mahavir's meditation, and the only tears the Lord sheds are for him. In Kaushambi a silent vow waits more than five months for a princess in chains, and a cowherd's cruelty is undone by a physician's care. Then, in a farmer's field by a quiet river, the light comes. The fourth of six long reads on the life of Bhagwan Mahavir, told the way Acharya Hemachandra and the Kalpa Sutra tell it.
| Teaches | Compassion, Forgiveness, Patience, Devotion, Perfect knowledge |
|---|---|
| Collection | Life of Bhagwan Mahavir |
| Tellings | The full story (20 min) |
| Who it suits | For grown-ups |
| Tradition | Shvetambar telling |
| Thought to keep | He stayed dry-eyed through every torment, and wept only for the one who caused them. |
Read the opening of The Tear, the Lentils and the Light
The opening of the story
Goshalak was a hard companion from the first day. On the road to Svarnakhal he wanted to know about every meal before it was cooked, and in every village after that his tongue ran ahead of him. He laughed at other ascetics, mocked a bride and groom and called herdsmen names. Again and again he was beaten, tied up or thrown into a thicket of bamboo, and again and again he came running back. "Master," he would cry, "you are kind to everyone else. Why do you stand and watch while they beat your own disciple?"
The Lord kept his silence. Hemachandra says it was the god Siddharth, the guardian Indra had left near him, who answered, and the answer was always the same. "Your troubles come out of your own mouth. Nobody else gives them to you." Goshalak never took the lesson. More than once people let him go only because they saw the silent monk waiting for him down the road.
Read the whole story of The Tear, the Lentils and the Light See plans
What The Tear, the Lentils and the Light teaches
Values Compassion Forgiveness Patience Devotion Perfect knowledge
To carry into the day
He stayed dry-eyed through every torment, and wept only for the one who caused them.
To talk about together
Chandanbala wanted to give away the first food she had seen in three days. What makes a gift great: its size, or what it costs the giver?
Sources
Retold for JainStory from the traditional story and checked against 4 published sources:
- sacred-texts.com
- neonvagabond.xyz
- Wisdom Library (15 pages)
- Jain eLibrary (2 pages)