Monks and Acharyas
Sthulibhadra and Kosha
Sthulibhadra and Kosha is a Jain story from the Monks and Acharyas collection about love and restraint, renunciation, self-mastery, grief, humility and preserving the teaching. The minister's son Sthulibhadra has lived for twelve years with Kosha, the most celebrated dancer in Pataliputra, until a poet's grudge at court costs his father his life. Years later, as a monk, he asks his teacher for the strangest of tests: four months of the rains in the painted chamber where he once lost himself. A long read on love, grief and self-mastery, told as Acharya Hemachandra told it.
| Teaches | Love and restraint, Renunciation, Self-mastery, Grief, Humility, Preserving the teaching |
|---|---|
| Collection | Monks and Acharyas |
| Tellings | The full story (19 min) |
| Who it suits | For grown-ups |
| Tradition | Shvetambar telling |
| Thought to keep | Love that clings asks to be held; love that frees can sit in the same room and want nothing. |
Read the opening of Sthulibhadra and Kosha
The opening of the story
The first clouds of the rainy season were piling up over Pataliputra when a monk in plain white cloth walked barefoot through the street of the dancers and stopped at the gate of the finest house in it. He carried a bowl, a small broom of soft wool for brushing insects from his path, and nothing else. The doorkeeper looked at him, looked again, and ran inside without a word. Twelve years this man had lived in that house. Then he had gone out of it one morning and had not come back. Now he stood at the gate with his head shaved, asking for nothing but a place to stay.
His name was Sthulibhadra. He was the elder son of Shakdal, chief minister to King Nanda, the ninth and last of the Nanda kings of Magadh. Shakdal was a careful, devout man who served the king faithfully and kept the Jain faith quietly at home. He had two sons, Sthulibhadra and Shriyak, and seven daughters, each of whom could repeat a poem after hearing it only a few times. Shriyak, the younger son, grew up at court and became one of the king's most trusted guards. Sthulibhadra had no taste for the court at all. He loved music, poetry and beautiful things, and he went looking for them.
Read the whole story of Sthulibhadra and Kosha See plans
What Sthulibhadra and Kosha teaches
Values Love and restraint Renunciation Self-mastery Grief Humility Preserving the teaching
To carry into the day
Love that clings asks to be held; love that frees can sit in the same room and want nothing.
To talk about together
Why do you think the teacher called the painted chamber harder than the lion's cave, and what in your own life is hardest to face calmly?
Sources
Retold for JainStory from the traditional story and checked against 5 published sources: