Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 1

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

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named Sarvatobhadra, like a streak of twilight-clouds on a mountain. Then in a beautiful garden she saw the gods coming to Muni Susthita who had reached omniscience. “Where have I seen this before ?" Using ūhā and apoha 88 she recalled her former births like a dream of the night. At once she fell on the ground in a swoon as if unable to bear in her heart the load of the knowledge of her former births. After she had recovered consciousness from treatment of sandal, 87 etc., administered by her friends, she got up and reflected as follows: "Lalitānga, my husband in a former birth, fell from heaven. Where has he descended now? Ignorance of this grieves me. Since he fills my heart, there is no other lord of my heart. Who indeed would put salt in a dish of camphor ? He is the lord of my life. If there is no opportunity of conversation with him, what use is there in talking to any one else?" and she took a vow of silence. Fearing that it was a derangement due to supernatural agency, her friends gave treatment of charms, spells, etc., such as was fitting. She did not abandon her silence even from one hundred remedies. For certainly one disease is not cured by the remedy for another. On occasion she gave instruction to her retinue by writing and by gestures with her eye-brows, hands, etc.
One day Srimatī had gone to a pleasure-garden, and her nurse, named Paņditā, seized a favorable opportunity and spoke to her privately : “You are like my life to me; I am like your mother. There is no reason for lack of confidence between us. Tell me, daughter, why you have taken to silence. Make your grief easier by sharing it with me. When I know your grief, I shall
86 634. These are the second and third divisions of matijñāga. See below, 3. 579-84 and note 248.
87 636. To rub sandal-paste on the forehead or chest is a recognized Indian treatment for fainting. To hold an onion under the nose is another.