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Then he set out with horses and elephants ornamented with gold, diamonds, and rubies, with infantry, and chariots made of embodied wealth, as it were. As he went along with the soldiers having moving festoons Emade by the heaps of splendor from their ornaments, the King saw from afar the jeweled-banner 244 ahead. Then Bharata said to Marudevā, “O Lady, that in the distance is the Lord's samavasarapa, built by the gods. You hear a tumult of cries of 'Hail ! Hail !' of gods who have come to the festival of worshipping my father's lotus-feet. This drum, sounding in the sky, deep and sweet, O Mother, spreads the Lord's heart's joy, like a bard. The loud sound of bells starting in the palaces of the gods who are praising the Master's lotus-feet is the guest of our ears. The lion's roar of the gods delighted at the sight of the Master is heard in the sky, like thunder of the thunder-clouds. This song of the Gandharvas, purified by grāmarāgas, like a slave of the Master's speech, nourishes our joy today."
Then the eye-disease was washed away like mud by Lady Marudevi's copious tears of joy, when she heard this. She saw her son's Tirthakrt-splendor accompanied by the supernatural powers, and from joy at the sight of that, her absorption-in-that took place. She mounted at once the ksapakaśrepi and, the eight karmas being destroyed, she attained omniscience at once from the eighth gunasthāna. While still seated on the elephant's shoulder, the Mistress Marudevi attained moksa simultaneously with death and omniscience. She was the first person to attain mokṣa in this avasarpini. The gods deposited her body in the Ocean of Milk after performing rites. From that time funeral rites existed among the people. Whatever the great do, that becomes a custom. When the King knew of her mokşa, he was penetrated by
244 521. One of the atiśavas. See n. 11.
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