The story of 'Rakshabandhan in Jainism

The Story of 'Rakshabandhan' in Jainism
BY:- Dr. Amit Prakash Jain
I am going to tell the story of 'Rakshabandhan' in jainism.

Long back, at the time of the 14th tirthankar Shree Anantnath Swami Bhagwan, there was a dharmatma king ruling with his wife in the Ujjaini nagri.The king had 4 Brahmin ministers named:- Bali, Namuchi, Brahaspati & Prahlad.These ministers were orthodox followers of the vedas & were strictly against the jain faith.
.One day, in the outskirts of Ujjain, Akampanacharya, who was a digamber jainaachaarya ,came with the his 700 shishys(munis) .When citizens heard this news they went for their darshans.Seeing this the king also decided to go to have darshans of the saints.But, the ministers said to the king that these saints are not true ones and are fools & are not of the worthy to be paid obeisence by the king.But, the king was a good person & he said that he will surely go to the munis.So the ministers also unwillingly went with the king to the munis.
In the meantime, the great Aacharya saw by his 'aqvadhi gyan'(it is a special quality of some munis to see the things of past, present & the future) that the ministers of this kingdom are against the jainism & can create problems & so he ordere all the munis to take 'maun vrata' that is not to speak anything.But, unfortunately one of the munis named as Shrutsaagarji did not heard this order as he was in the city to take the 'aahar' or food.Now, the king reached the place with his ministers & bowed down his head before the munis but due to their vrats they didn't said anythiong to the king.At this the minister named Bali said that see how arrogant these munis are , theey even can't speak anything & we think that they are fools & that is why they are not opening their mouths so that their their foolishness is disguised.At last the king returned from their , but in the way they saw muni Shrutsaagarji coming after having his food .Bali laughed at the muni & said a shlok in sanskrit which meant that "look an ox after grazing is coming before us".At this the highly learnt muni said another shlok which had the same sanskrit words but with the meaning that stimulated the ministers.The muni & the minister then had a vaad-vivaad (debate).The muni was very intelligent & he defeated those minister in the debate.This made the minister to be embarressed before the king.So, the ministers decided to take the revenge of this, they decided to kill the munis.So in the night they went to the outskirts of the city.
But, meanwhile Shrutsaagar told everything to the aacharya who said that this will bring the whole sangh into trouble .
So, the aacharya said to muni Shrutsaagarji that he should go back to the site of the debate & do dhyana for the whole night at that place.
The muni accepted it & went into the city to the place where he had debate & he sat on the site & started his aatma-dhyana.
Now, in the meanwhile the 4 brahmin ministers as they were going to the sangh, saw the muni in their way & recognised him.They said to each other that he is the culprit , why we should give punishment to the whole sangh.Let us kill only this muni.
They took out their swords simultaneously & raised them to kill the muni who was in dhyana.
Suddenly the Nagar-devata of the Ujjaini city with his supernatural powers made these ministers 'frozen' & like this they were made immobile & the muni was saved.
In the following morning the citizens saw the ministers being frozen with their swords raised on the muni & they soon understood everything.
The king came to know this news , ran to the muni & touched his feets & said sorry to him.
The king said that he is going to give death-sentence to the ministers .At this the mercyful muni asked the king not to give the death-sentence to the ministers , SO the king ordered that these ministers' face must be blackened & they must be placed on donkeys & their procession is to be taken into the whole of the city & then they must be thrown out of the city for ever.
The punishment was executed as per the orders of the king & the 4 ministers were thrown out of the city.
They felt very humiliated & took a pledge to take a good revenge of it.
They travelled a lot of miles in the north to reach up to the city of Hastinapur which was then ruled by king Padma.
Bali & the other exiled ministers went to his court & sang a lot of things in the praise of the king & as they were brahmins so they gave him some blessings.
The king became very happy with these & asked them to become his ministers.They agreed.
Soon Bali came to realise that the king is having some problem due to which he can't enjoy his life properly.
One day bali asked the king about his problem.
The king said that his father was a Chakravarti & many kings were under him but then he took Jain-deeksha & attained salvation , My elder brother Shree Vishnukumar has also become jain-muni.
Due to this some of the kings who were under us are now not obeying me & a king of the nearby kingdom is planning to annexe my kingdom.This is my problem.
Bali said that he can bring the offending king to his feets.
At this the king said that if he can do this then it will be a very great boon for him.
Bali along with the other 3 ministers went to the offender king & said that they are betraying the king Padma & they can make this king conquer the state of Hastinapur.
The offender king accepted them as his friends.Bali asked that they should have a confidential talk with no other person inside the room. The king agreed & then Bali took out his sword & made the king to obey his orders.
The offender king was arrested by Bali & the 3 ministers & were taken to the king Padma of Hastinapur.
King Padma was so happy that he sweared to give 2 boons to Bali.
At this Bali said that he will ask these 2 boons later on & the king agreed.
Many years passed & rainy season was about to come.
The sangh of Akampanachaarya passing thru many states came to the Hastinapur nagari.
The ministers recognised the munis & their pledge to take the revenge got nourished.
Bali went to the king Padma & reminded him about his 2 boons.The king asked him to take his boons.
Bali said- "my 1st boon is that I want to be the king of Hastinapur for 7 days & my 2nd boon is that you will live inside the palace for these 7 days".
The king agreed tothis..
Now Bali ordered to build an altar around the muni-sangh for a Nar-medh yajna.
The munis taking this as 'upsarg' went into dhyana.
Then Bali ordered to put woods & ghee in the altar( in which the munis were in dhyana.
He started giving a lot of charity to the brahmins who came to his yajna.
He lighted a fire in the alter & the hot air & smoke made the munis black.
The king was not able to do anything against this & was helpless.
The pains of the munis gradually increased & they can't even breath in.
Far away in the east in the Mithila city there was an aacharya sitting in dhyana with his shishya who was a chhullak.
This aacharya saw that the sraavan nakshatra was vibrating & a long "haaa-----" came out of his mouth.
The chhillak asked what has happened? The guru answered that that he can see by his Avadhigyan that there is a great upsarg on the munis at Hastinapur.
The chhullak said that we must do something.
Guru asked him to use his power of trevvelling in the air & go to the moutain named as Dharnijhhat.
There Muni Vishnukumar is in deep dhyana, he has got the 'vikriya riddhi'.
You go and ask him to save the munis.
The chhulak without wasting anytime went to the mountain & did what was asked by his guru.
Muni Vishnukumar was elder brother of king Padma SO he 1st went to him and scolded him & then using his vikriya (power to change the size of body to any limit) made his body of 52 anguls( a small height).He took the make-up of a batuk brahmin & went to Bali to ask for the charity.
Bali said to the batuk to ask whatever he wants.
At this the batuk asked Bali to 1st take the pledge that he will give him whatever he asks. Bali did so.
Then the batuk asked that he wants 3 step land to do yajna & he will measure the land with his own legs.
Bali laught at him and said" I pity on you brahmin , what a small thing you asked?"
But batuk said that he want this only & nothing else.
Bali said "go ahead and measure your 3 steps"?
The batuk used his vikriya riddhhi & made his body so large that ni his 1st step he put his feet on the sumeru mountain & with his next step he put his feet on the maanushotar parvat .
Now there was no place left for him to keep his feet to measure his 3rd step.
He shouted at Bali" give me the place to put my 3rd step, oh sinner you will go to hell"
Bali showed his back & asked the batuk to put his 3rd step on his back..
At this the devtas whom Bali used to worship like Narad etc came & asked Visnukumar in the form of batuk to forgive Bali.
Vishnukumar agreed & Bali also asked to forgive & he became a jain.
Vishnukumar again took the digamber deeksha.
That day all the people opf Hastinapur took a pledge that they will give up their lives also to save the dharma & the munis & for this they tieghed a thread on the wrists of each other as reminder for their pledge.
From then only Rakshabandhan is celebrated.