Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

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hundred. Travelers advanced very slowly, sunk into new mud up to the knees as if they had put on boots. • Long clubs of her own arms, as it were, were extended by an evil fate in the guise of rivers to obstruct travelers on every road. The carts mired everywhere in the terrible mud on the road, as if seized by the earth from anger at her long crushing. The camels, led by ropes by their riders who had dismounted, slipped at every step and fell on the road. When the merchant Dhana noticed the impassability of the road, he stopped and made a camp at that very place in the forest. The people made thatched huts there to pass the rainy season. For people who act according to time and place never suffer. The Sūri with the sādhus dwelt in a thatched hut as an upaśraya on ground free from lives pointed out by Māņibhadra. Because of the size of the caravan and the length of the rainy season, every one's provisions, barley, etc., gave out. Then the members of the caravan, afflicted by hunger, went here and there to eat bulbs, roots, etc., ragged like ascetics. At the beginning of night, the miserable plight of the caravan was fully described to its leader by his friend Māạibhadra. Then the merchant remained in continuous thought about the caravan's trouble, motionless as the ocean undisturbed by wind. Then in a moment sleep came to him worn out by anxiety. For excessive grief and excessive happiness are its chief causes.
During the last watch of the night, a certain stablewatchman, sincere at heart, recited as follows: "Our Master, whose fame has spread in every direction, keeps his promises even though he has suffered misfortune. He surely does !” When Dhana heard that, he thought, “Some one is ridiculing me. Who can it be? Who in my caravan here is especially unfortunate ? Oh, I know. The Ācārya Dharmaghoşa came with me. He lives only on alms that have not been made, nor caused to be made (for him) and are pure. Now when the whole caravan is