poor (Vastra puṇya) and especially to monks, as the following legend teaches. Once upon a time a rich merchant’s wife saw some monks shivering with cold, and made them blankets of cloth of gold out of some magnificent material she had by her. As a recompense she became in her next birth Marudevī, the mother of the first Tīrthaṅkara Ṛiṣabhadeva, and attained mokṣa in the same incarnation.
iv. Layaṇa and
v. Śayana puṇya.Another legend illustrates the reward gained by any one, even a heretic, for building or lending a house to a monk (Layaṇa puṇya), or providing seats, beds or bedding (Śayana puṇya). A potter named Śakaḍāla, a follower of Gośāla, once saw Mahāvīra enter his village and approach his dwelling. At first he thought of not inviting Gośāla’s great opponent into his house, but seeing Mahāvīra’s divine qualities, he at length asked him in and gave him lodgings and a bed. (He could not offer food, as a sādhu may not eat at the house where he stays.) In return Mahāvīra taught Śakaḍāla the law and converted him to the true faith, and he became a devoted Śrāvaka in this life and after death a god. Being reincarnated as a man, he became a sādhu and so reached mokṣa.