Khandak Muni
Khandak muni was a king and had many of the luxuries that came with being part of royalty. One day a Acharya came to visit the King and he instantly became detached from worldly pleasures after hearing and seeing the pure life the Acharya was living. So he decided to take diksha and live his life as monk from that point forward. One of his main goals after becoming a monk was to sever his weakness with his body and strengthen his soul. He spent many many years concentrating on his soul and was completely detached as to the condition of his body. Khandak’s body has become very weary, dark, and the skin is very hard from standing out in the sun for such a long time. Khandak had a sister and she gets married many years after Khandak has become a monk. She married a prince and leaves her kingdom to go live with him. One day Khandak muni is traveling to the same town that his sister now lives in with her husband. He is passing by the castle that his sister now lives in and is playing a game of chopat with her husband. Khandak muni is walking and is looking at the ground as he walks which makes him unaware of the people around him. But Rani (Khandak’s sister) sees that there is muni traveling along the path by her home. So then she begins to think my brother is also a monk now and must be doing the same as this muni i see here. She looks a little closer at the muni and then realizes it is her brother himself she is seeing. It brings tears to her eyes to see how different he looks from when he was a raja to now as a muni. She was holding the dice in her hand but her concentration was lost from the game to her brother who she sees in such condition. So when she didn’t throw the dice her husband wonders why is she not throwing the dice and looks to her and sees the tears in her eyes. So then he realizes she is staring at the muni who is walking on the path by his kingdom. The raja does not recognize Khandak as raja married Khandak’s sister many years after Khandak became a monk. So now raja believes that this must be a previous lover of his wife and she has tears in her eyes seeing him after all this time. So he feels that she must still have feelings for him and regardless he is a muni raja sees him as a threat. So then he gets up and leaves the game and rani is still staring at her brother and thinking of his difficult life. Raja then calls two of his guards and tells them that there is a muni who has just passed through here and to beat him where his skin is pulled from his body. Khandak muniraj turns the corner to go where he’s headed and the two guards follow him and stop him. Then when they see the muni they think why would their raja give such an order to remove the skin off this muniraj’s body? They think his face is so calm and serene what could be in Raja’s mind that he’d order such a horrible fate for the muni. But what to do? If they don’t do as their king orders they will be killed by the king for not complying to his command. They bow to the muni raja and say, “Muniraj please forgive us! We have committed such horrific sins that today now we have been ordered to remove the skin from your body by our King. Please forgive us king our conscience is killing us that we have to do such an act just to stay employed to the king. What should we do maharaj?” They begin crying profusely in front of the maharaj. Then Khandak muni says, “Brothers, why are you crying and becoming so scared. You are the servants of your king and he’s given you a order that you need to carry out so go ahead and carry it out. Though there is one thing I must let you know that my skin has become hard and very tough. I wouldn’t want you two to get hurt so tell me how you want me to stand so it makes it easier for you and you won’t get hurt from the whip.” Give me just me a minute and I'll go into a meditation. So he goes into his deep meditation and the two guards began beating him relentlessly. Though they were beating him he did not move and after a short time his bondage to his karmas broke. He then procured liberation of his soul.