Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

Page 351

330 where to the Master's lotus-feet. He listened to the dharma of the Lord delivering a sermon, a rainy-season cloud for bestowing benefits on all. Like moonlight to the cakravāka, like the sun to the owl, like medicine to a sick man whose good fortune is exhausted (i.e., doomed to die), like coolness to one suffering from wind, like the rainy season to a goat,871 the dharma spoken by the Master did not please Kapila. Wishing to hear another dharma, casting his glance here and there, he saw Marici with characteristics differing from those of the Master's disciples. He went from the Master to Marici, wishing to find another dharma, like a foolish buyer from a rich man's shop to a poor man's shop. When he asked him about dharma, Marici said, “There is no dharma here. If you are seeking dharma, listen to the Master.” Again he went to Rşabha Svāmin's feet and again listened to his dharma in the same way. Spoiled by his own karma, the Master's dharma did not please him. For what is the use of a full pond to a miserable cataka? He went again to Marici and said, "Have you no dharma whatever ? How could there be a vow without dharma ? ” Marici reflected, “He is suitable for me. Ah! This union of similar people has taken place after a long time as the result of fate. Let him be a companion for me who have no companion." So thinking, he said, “There is dharma; and here is dharma." By that one falsehood, Marici acquired for himself a terrible birth extending for a crore of crores of sāgaras. He initiated Kapila and made him his companion. From that time there has been heresy on the part of mendicants.
871 42. It seems an accepted belief (in India) that goats are especially averse to rain, though why more so than other animals I have not been able to ascertain.