Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

Page 286

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Questioned by the King, “O good lady, daughter of a good lady, do you wish to become a mendicant ?" she replied, “Yes." Bharata said, “Either from negligence or from simplicity, for so long I have prevented her taking the vow. She is the child like our father, free from worldly feelings. What are we, devoted to things of the senses, not satisfied with a kingdom ? People, greedy for things of the senses, even though knowing that life is very perishable like a wave of ocean-water, do not realize it. By this transitory life moksa should be obtained properly, like a glimpse of a road by lightning that disappears instantly. Whatever adornment is applied to the body consisting of the liver, impurities, perspiration, and disease, that is like perfuming the house-drain. You take with this body the vow which bears the good fruit of mokşa. Certainly the clever take jewels even from the Ocean of Milk.” When permission to take the vow had been given by the delighted King, though she was thin from penance, she expanded so with delight that she was not thin.
Just then the Blessed Lord Rşabha, the cloud to the peacock of the world, came to Mt. Aștāpada in his wandering. There on the mountain, the gods made a samavasaraña that was like another mountain of jewels, gold, and silver. Without delay the mountain-guards came and reported to Lord Bharata that the Master was preaching there. When he heard that news, the King rejoiced more than at the conquest of the six-part Bharatakşetra. The King gave a present of twelve and a half crores of gold to the servants announcing the Master's arrival. “The Teacher of the World has come here in his wandering, like the embodied accomplishment of your desire,” he said to Sundari.
The Lord of Bharata had the departure-ceremony made by young women of his family as well as slave-girls. After bathing and being anointed at once with pure ointment, she put on fringed garments that were like another ointment. She put on choice jewels and ornaments.