Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

Page 185

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world and the next. Crowds of gods, like bards of the Lord, made loud cries of “Hail! Hail!" delighting the ears of men. As the Lord went on the way, seated in the litter, he looked like an eternal image in a palace of the highest gods.
When they saw the Blessed One coming like that, all the citizens ran after him eagerly, like children after a father. Some men climbed on the branches of tall trees to see the Master from afar, like peacocks to see a cloud. Some, who had climbed to the tops of houses on the road to see the Master, considered the intense heat of the sun like the heat of the moon. Some, unable to endure the delay, did not mount horses, but themselves skipped rapidly along the road like horses, Some, from a desire to see the Master, penetrated the crowds, as heat penetrates water, and appeared in front. Some women, running around the Lord of the Three Worlds, threw handfuls of parched rice, as it were, from their necklaces broken from haste. Some, from a desire to see, went in front of the Lord and stood with children on their hips, like branches of trees with monkeys seated on them. Some, who were inactive from the burden of their breasts, hurried, clinging to the arms of friends on both sides as if they had made wings. Some women, from longing for the moment of seeing the Lord, reviled their hips—weights obstructing their gait. Some high-born women in the houses on the road, clothed in auspicious safflowercolor, made a full dish of offerings, resembling twilight with the moon. Some coquettish-eyed women shook the ends of their garments, like chauris, with their lotushands at the sight of the Lord. Some women threw parched rice around the son of Nābhi, as if ardently sowing the seeds of merit for themselves. Some sang blessings and speeches, such as “Long live! Long rejoice!" just like women with living husbands to their own families. The women of the city followed, looking