Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

SR No.: 001004
Original Sutra Author: Hemchandracharya
Author: Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra
Publication Year: 1954
Total Pages: 449
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Mythology, & Story
File Size: 9 MB

Page 384

RAMA'S EMANCIPATION
349
Then the blessed sage Räma completed his meditation and went there with the wish to break his fast, and the king stood up to greet him. He entertained Rāma with the remaining food and drink and a rain of jewels fell from the sky when he had broken his fast. The sage Rama delivered a sermon and Pratinandin and the others became laymen, observing the twelve vows of right-belief.
Beginning from that time Răma remained in the same place for a long time in the forest, practicing severe penance, being worshipped by goddesses living in the forest. With the desire to reach the shore of existence the sage Räma broke his fast at one month, two months, three, and four months. Sometimes he remained in paryanka-posture; sometimes he stood with his arms hanging down; sometimes he sat in utkaṭikā-posture; sometimes he held his arms up. Sometimes he stood on a toe and sometimes on his heel. Meditating in these various postures, 805 he practiced severe penance.
One day in his wandering Rāma went to Mt. Kotiśilā which had been lifted in the past by Lakṣmaṇa in the presence of Vidyadharas. Rāma occupied the mountain, mounted on the ladder of destruction of karma,200 engaged in pratima, and practiced another pure meditation in the night. Then Sitendra, 207 knowing this by clairvoyance, thought: "If Rama becomes incarnated in worldly existence, I shall be united with him again. I shall make an attack on him, while he is on the ladder of destruction, with agreeable phenomena that he may be a god, a friend of mine."
With these thoughts, Sitendra went to Rama and created by magic a large garden adorned by spring. A flock of cukoos warbled, the wind from Malaya blew, bees flew about humming, rejoicing in the fragrance of flowers. The mango, campaka, aśoka, the trumpet-flower tree,
205 212. For the postures, see II, n. 18.
300 214. See II, p. 433.
207 215. Sita in her incarnation as an Indra.