SAMRADITYA SAGA Part 2 - TANGLES OF HATRED

Journey of self-reflection

Kusumavali left the city along with Madanrekha and Jaipal, and went to accept monkhood. This news was received by the king through his security guards.
“It’s good that there was no obstacle in the queen’s way. She got the support of Madanrekha and Jaipal. She will surely reach Sadhviji Gandharvadutta safely. By accepting monkhood, she will become a nun. Sadhviji Gandharvadutta is a great practitioner of monkhood. When she had come to Jaipur, I had met her. She is gentle and soft-spoken. She has accurate knowledge of the path of salvation. Her behaviour with her fellow nuns is appropriate. Kusumavali will experience ultimate peace at her feet. She will feel ultimate satisfaction. Kusumavali’s mind will be able to feel supreme ecstasy in learning and meditation. She will realise the pure nature of the soul. She is really fortunate. I appreciate her monkhood. May she attain a peaceful death. Shedding off all her karmas, may she attain liberation.”
The king was overjoyed. Then introspection began in his mind, ‘What did I think and what happened! After the coronation of the prince, I had decided to accept monkhood by Gurudev. Unfavourable karmas destroyed  that desire. Kusum had said, “Others will handle the coronation, let’s leave from here today itself.” Jaipal had said the same thing but it didn’t seem right to me. Five days seemed like a very short time. I was dependent on time. What was going to spoil in five days? But everything went wrong. Unbelievable and unimaginable happened. In this strange world, everything like this can happen. Whether we wish or no, planned things might not happen and unplanned things can also happen. Well, in the light of knowledge of enlightened beings, all this was certain. I am not upset about imprisonment. More than this jail, I  feel more dreadful about the imprisonment of this body. It is more dangerous and terrifying. I have to free my soul from the prison of this body. I will bear the pain of this external prison with ease.
Explaining me the nature of the four categories of incarnations in the world, the hell that Gurudev had described; this prison is nothing in comparison to the misery and torturous horror of that hell. Continuous suffering and anguish for innumerable years has to be faced in hell. In this jail, sorrow has to be experienced only for a few days. That too, not continuously. I can eat here, sleep and even meditate peacefully! It’s quite good! The prince has only struck my body with a sword, but my mind is fine. He has not harmed my mind. That’s why, I can do this introspection and also accept monkhood internally! Here, I do not need to commit any sin through my thoughts, words or actions. Oh! Unintentionally, I’ve just got a precious opportunity to live a sinless life here. Yes! I will have to eat food prepared for me, it will be sinful. But why should I eat now? I don’t have any love for life now. And looking at the way my body is injured, I don’t even expect to live long!
What if I fast unto death? Now, I don’t need food or water. Gurudev had also told me the method of accepting anshan. I can bear hunger and thirst. I shall fast, spend the rest of my life in the meditation of the Almighty and get absorbed in the pure form of the soul.’
The king’s enthusiasm started boosting.
He accepted anshan with the witness of his soul and the Almighty. Meanwhile, the door of the prison opened and the gatekeeper entered with a plate of food.
“Your Majesty, this food is for you.”
“Brother, I don’t need food now.”
“I am going to fast unto death. I have given up on food and water till the end of my life.”
The gatekeeper’s eyes turned moist. He took the plate of food and went out with tears.
He went and told the prison officer, “The king will never have food again. He has accepted fast unto death.”
“It’s right. How can someone eat in such severe pain and humiliated condition? What condition did the prince make of such a great king! God knows in which life was the king an enemy of the prince?”
The officer was appointed by Commander Jaipal. Immediately after the exit of Durmati and his soldiers from the prison, this officer had given the king a place in another neat and clean section. Still, imprisonment is imprisonment.
The officer soon went to the prince riding on a horse.
He greeted the prince and said, “The king has sacrificed food and water. He has decided to fast for lifetime.”
“Who king? I am the king now! You dare call that old man the king henceforth! That old man is refusing to eat food. In this way, he is trying to defame me. He wants to die like this. However, I will not allow him to succeed in his tricks.”
Anand was burning like a snake.
He said to the new minister, Devsharma, who was sitting nearby, “You go and force the king to eat. If he does not understand even after explaining, then tell him that Anand will not hesitate in killing you mercilessly. Go and explain him right away!”
***
Minister Sumtisagar was stunned by the sudden change in the state. He was furious. The king was put in jail, the queen left the city, the commander left the state. So many accidents left him shattered. He took retirement. The prince had appointed Devsharma as the leading minister in his place. In place of Jaipal, Durmati given the post of commander.
Devsharma came to the prison. He had complete goodwill towards the king in his heart. The brutality with which Anand stabbed the king with a sword, the way in which the king was tied up and put behind bars, did not please Devsharma at all. But when he saw the ill-tempered Durmati with the prince, and saw the prince taking advice from Durmati for everything, he believed in gaining the prince’s trust instead of opposing him. ‘If the administration of the state will go into the hands of this wicked man, then the citizens will be pushed in the pit of sorrow. Religious culture will be ripped off. The prosperity of the state will go to other states. Therefore, one should acquire high position in the empire considering it to be his Dharm amidst problems. With this mindset, Devsharma had accepted the post of leading minister. He was also of the same age as Sinhkumar.
Devsharma entered the prison.
He went to the king’s section. The king was lying down. His eyes were shut.
Devsharma greeted him and said, “Your Majesty, I, Devsharma, have come to meet you.”
The king opened his eyes.
Devsharma saw the king’s blood-stained clothes. His body was covered in blood. Clothes had stuck to the wound. Yet the expressions of unending gentleness and equanimity on his face were unhindered. Devsharma’s heart was filled with sorrow.
His eyes got moist. He sent all the soldiers and officers outside. Then he himself sat on the ground next to the king.
He said spontaneously, “The evil killed the god. King, you are intelligent and  inspired by the words of Tirthankar. You are courageous. If you fast like this, then how will you be able to make efforts? Victory over previously bound karmas can be achieved only through effort. So, I request you to have the food. Don’t be discouraged and disappointed towards life. If life is saved, then prosperity can be acquired by cutting through mountains of difficulties. If life is secured, pride will return.”
“Devsharma, you are talking about efforts. I have not stopped making efforts in accordance with time. A man should make efforts as per the situation. Since the last few years, I have made adequate efforts for wealth, desires and spirituality. Now since I feel appropriate to rely only on Dharm Purusharth, I have accepted the monkhood internally and have also vowed to fast unto death.”
“Your Majesty, if you don’t eat, Anand will be very angry unnecessarily. His mind has deteriorated. He cannot acquire the good qualities of the virtuous. He cannot recognise the people and situations. He is ready to harm the subjects. He has become free like a frantic elephant. Wickedness seems to have filled him. He is ignited by unfavourable thoughts towards you. Fire of enmity is blazing within him. King, do you want to hand over the future of the state and subjects to such oppressors? If you, who wish and act for the wellness of the subjects, think only of your own self-welfare and leave the people on destiny, then how will it work? Think for other’s welfare first. Make a plan with this as the centre. We are all in your support!”
“Devsharma, in the last days of life, efforts should be made not for others but for self-welfare. Just look at my body, how many wounds have been inflicted on it! Will you be able to heal these wounds with medicines in the prison? The prince, sitting on the fire of enmity for no reason, will he let me live? Do you think? Just when he attacked for the first time, Jaipal came and threw away his sword and tied him up. Otherwise he was trying to kill me at that moment itself.”
“Your Majesty, now that you are saved, why are you longing for death?”
“I am longing for a peaceful death. When there is no desire to live, the condition of such life is also on the edge of completion. The body is slowly moving towards death. Then leaving all other duties, subjects and the prince on their fate, I have accepted monkhood internally. ‘I am alone. Nobody belongs to me. I belong to nobody!’ By imbibing the true nature of the soul, I want to be absorbed in the meditation of the supreme soul.”
“King, you are fine, you have become disinterested towards your life. However, millions of people want your life, I want it too. And I am ready to accept every order of yours!”
A smile appeared on the king’s face.
He said, “Devsharma, if it were so, I would not have stopped Jaipal by giving him my swear. When he jumped with his sword to behead the prince, he would have killed him had I  not stopped him. The wound on my body had made me feel that it was fatal. I was certainly going to die. Then I did not feel appropriate in letting prince be killed and keeping the subjects without a king!”
“What progress will such a prince bring for the people by being a king?”
“Devsharma, it is not necessary that a man who has enmity towards one man, will keep enmity towards everyone else. His behaviour with others can be gentle, polite and affectionate. He is keeping enmity towards me because of my karmas of some previous life. Just because of this, it should not be assumed that he will harm the people.”
“But the prince is following the footsteps of Durmati. He is really wicked! What will be the result of this?”
“Devsharma, you are efficient and clever. If you stay with the prince, then you will be able to guide him about the right and wrong when time comes. Maybe he’ll get on the right track!”
“It is for this reason that I have accepted the post of leading minister. But you have to accept one request of mine. You have food.”
“Devsharma! When a house is about of collapse, it cannot be repaired at that time. It must be allowed to fall! Then you can build a new house at the same place. Now, this body is about to fall. It will surely fall. Trying to sustain it by giving it food will prove to be fruitless. It will not yield any result. So, don’t insist for food.”
“Your majesty, I believe that one should try to survive as long as the body supports. Efforts should be continued till the last breath.”
“What you are thinking for me may be true, but I don’t agree with it. My own mindset is a little different for me. Devsharma, what seems appropriate for others may not be appropriate for oneself. And what seems to be appropriate for oneself may not be appropriate for others. This is the principle of appropriate and inappropriate conduct anywhere. From one point of view, what you are thinking for me is not wrong. And what I am thinking for myself, is also correct. Your wish to keep me alive, it is absolutely right. And my wish to voluntarily die in peace, is also right!”
“Your realistic approach has been understood by me. Now please, give me some knowledge of my duties! My duties towards the subjects, my soul and my responsibilities towards the royal family. Make me aware of all these.”
“Devsharma, you are wise. I know you. You have voluntarily stayed away from politics till today. And today, at the right time, you entered this field. This is a sign of your wisdom and intelligence. What knowledge should I give you? The sense of duty is a self-manifested quality. That quality is already present in you.
By coming here now, you have proved what can be the duty of a person at a given time, in a given area, towards a particular person. You have spoken with me fearlessly and calmly. You have always been fearless in life. In the same way, be fearless in future also. Even if you have to accept defeat at any point in life, then accept it fearlessly be the winner.”
“Your Majesty, this is how you have been a winner! The way you used to sit on the throne of a vast empire, I am seeing you sitting here in the prison today with the same fearlessness and cheerfulness. This is your blazing victory over your own life.
Your Majesty, can I make you one last request. If you don’t have food, Anand will get more angry. It will add fuel to the fire and there my be a huge explosion too.”
“Devsharma, you know that great men do not break their vows even after facing deadly difficulties. I have accepted anshan. How can I eat now? No, I won’t! The prince may do whatever he wants to. I’m not afraid of anything.”
When Devsharma did not return for a long time, Anand got furious.
‘That old man is stubborn. I will only have to go. His wisdom will have to be screwed.’ With a sword in his hand, the prince walked towards the prison.