The Magic Grove A Jain Tale

Jain monks took a keen interest in the spiritual uplift of the common people. To make their terse philosophy intelligible and interesting to the layman, they used the medium of stories. Thousands of such didactic stories in Sanskrit and Prakrit have come down to us.

Most of the stories teach us that meritorious acts bring prosperity and evil acts, untold misery. According to Jain philosophy, man is the master of his own destiny. He reaps what he sows. No outside force can help him get what he does not deserve, nor can it prevent him from getting what he does deserve. And yet in this story, as in many others, we find supernatural elements playing an important role in the destinies of individuals.

The story of the Magic Grove has been taken from the Jain scripture VARDHAMANA-DESANA