Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 130

109
sh
put on his head his folded hands which bestowed the beauty of a second jeweled crown, bowed, touching the earth with the lotuses of his knee and head, and with his hair erect from joy began a hymn of praise to the Arhat as follows:
Stuti (330-37) “Reverence to you, O Lord of the Congregation, Protector of the World, Ocean of Compassion, O Lord, son of Sri Nābhi. O Lord, you are resplendent with the three knowledges, sense-knowledge, 148 etc., innate, like Mt. Meru with the parks, Nandana, etc. O God, this zone of Bharata today surpasses heaven, since it is adorned by you, the crest-jewel of the three worlds. Like you, this day is to be held in respect throughout samsāra, purified by the festival of your birth-kalyāna,"? O Lord of the World. From the auspicious occasion of your birth, happiness arose even for the inhabitants of hell. For whom is the birth of the Arhats not a destroyer of pain ? Henceforth, let dharma, lost like a (hidden) deposit in the country of Bharata in Jambūdvipa, spring up from the seed of your power. Who that has attained to your feet will not cross samsāra ? Even iron in a ship reaches the bank of the ocean. Like a wishing-tree in a treeless place, like a river-torrent in the desert, O Blessed One, you have descended into Bharata, because of the merit of the people."
Having praised the Blessed One thus, the Lord of the first heaven instructed his general of infantry, Naigameşin : "In the middle division of the southern half of Bharata in Jambūdvipa, from the wife of the Patriarch Nābhi, Marudevā, a son, a depository of good fortune, is born. Summon all the gods for his birth-bath.” Then striking three
148 331. The Tirthankaras possess at birth three of the 5 kinds of knowledge: i.e., mati, sense-knowledge, śruta, study-knowledge, and avadhi, clairvoyant knowledge.
147 333. Kalyāna is a technical word for 5 important occasions in the life of a Tirth ankara: conception, birth, initiation, attainment of omniscience, and nirvāņa.