Jain Journal 1971 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 37

226
JAIN JOURNAL
there observing fasts. Unable to make an attack because of the power of dharma, cruel-minded, he watched for weak points continually for eleven years.
When the twelfth year came, the people thought : “We will enjoy ourselves, since Dvaipayana, crushed by this penance, has fled defeated." They began to sport at will, drinking wine and eating meat. At that time Dvaipayana, knowing a weak point, seized the opportunity. Many portents, resembling portents at the end of the world, appeared in Dvaraka, showing the gate to death. Meteors fell, thunderstroms took place, and the earth shook. Planets discharged smoke imitating fire. The disc of the sun, faulty made a rain of coals and suddenly there was an eclipse of sun and moon. Clay puppets in the houses gave loud bursts of laughter and the gods painted in pictures laughed, too, frowning. Within the city wild animals roamed and Asura Dvaipayana wandered attended by witches, ghouls and vampires.
In dreams the people saw themselves with red garments and ointment, sunk in mud, being dragged, facing the south. Bala's and Krsna's jewels, the plow (and) cakra disappeared ; and then Asura Dvaipayana created a whirlwind. He gathered up the wood, grass, (dry leaves) every where in the city and he brought the fleeing people from (all) quarters and threw them in the city. The whole city of Dvaraka, its trees uprooted by wind from eight directions, was filled with wood. After crowding together sixty crores of families from outside and seventytwo living inside into the city Dvaraka, the Asura lighted a fire. The fire blazed, like fire at the end of the world, darkening the universe by the unbroken masses of smoke. The towns people with their children and old people, unable to take a step as if chained together, remained made into a solid body.
Hari and Rama put Vasudeva, Devaki, and Rohini in a chariot to remove them from the fire. The horses did not move, transfixed by the god. Then Bala and Upendra themselves pulled the chariot, of which two axles were broken at once, like a piece of a reed. Nevertheless, they got the chariot to the gate by their own strength, wretched in mind from the cries, "Oh! Rama, save". "Oh! Krsna, save."
The Asura immediately made double-doors in the gate and Rama broke them like a clay dish with a kick. Nevertheless, the chariot did not go out, as if devoured by the earth ; and the god said to Rama and Krsna : “What is this delusion of yours? You were told earlier, indeed, that there was no escape for any one here, except you two. ...."