Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

Page 346

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just as on a mountain-side. Elephants, pulling at his hands and feet with the idea they were olibanum-shoots, were often embarrassed, unable to pull them up. Herds of yaks, their faces upturned, licked him fearlessly with tongues that were dreadful from their rough surfaces like saws. He was surrounded completely by creepers with a hundred branches shooting up, like a drum by leather thongs. Dense clusters of reeds grew up and around him, which had the appearance of quivers filled with arrows that had come from the power of former affection. Abundant darbha-grass filled with moving centipedes grew up around his feet buried in the mud of the rainy season. Hawks, sparrows, etc., in harmony with each other, made nests on his body covered with creepers. Thousands of serpents hid in the thickets of creepers, terrified by the call of the forest peacocks. Bāhubali looked as if he had a thousand arms from hanging serpents fastened to his body. His feet were surrounded by serpents, like anklets, that had left the ant-hill near his feet. As he stood thus in meditation, a year passed without food, like that of Vrşabha Svāmin when he was wandering. .. When the year was completed, Vrşabha-bannered, the Blessed One, kind to all, summoned Brāhmi and Sundari and said: “Now Bāhubali, much of whose karma is destroyed, is like the fourteenth night of the bright fortnight, almost devoid of darkness. He does not attain kevalajñāna because of pride, a division of deluding-karma. One can not see an object hidden by a curtain. At the speech of you two, now he will abandon pride at once. Go. Verily, the time for his instruction is at hand.” After taking the command on their heads and bowing at the Lord's feet, Brāhmi and Sundari went to Bahubali. Although he knew his pride, the Lord had been indifferent for a year. For the Arhats, whose purposes are unconfused, give advice at the right time.
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