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The Thirty-seventh Chapter
The great king Arihandra and his wife, Prithusri, were blessed with a son. After thirty years of his childhood, the king of Saketa, Jayasena, sent his messenger to the great sage Parsvanatha, with a gift of horses and other treasures from the Bhagali region. Parsvanatha received the gifts with joy and honored the messenger, asking him about the prosperity of Saketa. The messenger, in response, first described the great sage Rishabhadeva and then spoke of the city of Saketa. This was appropriate, as wise people understand the order of things. Hearing this, Parsvanatha pondered the meaning of his own Tirthankara karma and its benefits. He thought, "Blessed is Rishabhadeva, who attained liberation." As he reflected, he realized the continuity of his past lives, seeing all his previous existences.
The brilliance of his knowledge and the diminishing of his mental obscurations led him to attain self-knowledge. The celestial beings came and honored him. At that moment, Indra and other gods arrived to celebrate the auspicious occasion of his initiation, with grand festivities including the abhisheka (ceremony).
Then, Parsvanatha, with words that were true and reasonable, bid farewell to his relatives and mounted a palanquin called Vimala. He arrived at the Ashvavana (horse forest) and, with great fortitude, sat on a large stone platform facing north, in the posture of a sage. Thus, on the eleventh day of the dark fortnight of the month of Pausha, in the early morning, he bowed to the Siddhas (liberated souls) and, in the presence of three hundred kings, accepted the fortune of initiation. This initiation was like a noble messenger, a daughter of liberation, who brought the fulfillment of all desires.
Indra worshipped the hair that Parsvanatha had plucked out with five fists and, with great respect, carried it to the ocean of milk.
Parsvanatha, who had attained Samayika (a vow of self-restraint) and the fourth knowledge (knowledge of the mind), went to the city of Gulmakheta to partake in his parana (breaking of the fast).
There, the king named Dhanya, with a dark complexion, welcomed him with eight auspicious substances and offered him pure food, fulfilling the requirements of the parana.