Sadhvi Vishrut Vibha
The Path Of Liberation
About two thousand five hundred year ago, Acharya Bhadrabahu was spending his ‘Chaturmaas’ along with his disciples in a city named Rajgriha. One day, four friends came to the Acharya and requested him to make them his disciples. Later on, they became ascetics and started practicing ‘Ekal Vihar Pratima’, a special kind of penance.
On a very cold day, the four monks had to go out to get alms. It was the third ‘ prahar’ of the day. Each of them started off in a different direction. The fourth ‘prahar’ started but no one was ale to return to their abode in time. According to the rules of ‘Ekal Vihar Pratima’, an ascetic could not move after the fourth ‘prahar’ starts. Therefore the first monk who had reached near the mouth of a cave, stopped and stood right there, the second was in a city garden, the third had reached the outskirts of a garden and fourth one was outside the city. None of them budged from their places and absorbed themselves in ‘Kayotsarg’. It was an extremely chilly night with stormy winds blowing all around them. But the monks did not loose their composure and one by one they lost their lives.
When this news reached their Acharya, one of the disciples asked him, “Why didn’t the monk try to save their lives by reaching for shelter?” Acharya Bhadrabahu said, “One of the basic principles of ‘Agamas’ is that a monk has to tolerate every situation with calmness and patience, accepting whatever the consequence may be. A monk’s main objective is to attain salvation even if he has to stake his life.
