________________
319
the grove named Sahasrāmravaṇa.
After descending from the palanquin, the Supreme Lord, who wished to attain the three jewels, removed jewels, ornaments, etc. On the thirteenth of the black half of Pauşa, (the moon) in the constellation Maitreya, in the afternoon, observing a two days' fast, the Lord together with a thousand kings became a mendicant. Then the Lord's fourth kind of knowledge, mind-reading knowledge, illuminating the mind-substance of creatures of the human world, arose. On the next day the Lord broke his fast with rice-pudding at the house of King Somadatta in Padmakhanḍapura. The five divine thingsthe stream of treasure, etc., were made by the gods, and a jeweled platform was made by the king on the ground marked by the Arhat's feet.
Undefeated by the mass of snow that had defeated the heat of the sun; unshaken by the winds and bad weather with hoar-frost; his meditation, which was unequaled, unbroken by the winter night which turned the water of the pools into ice; making no distinction between going into the forest terrifying from its evil wild animals, such as lions, tigers, etc., and staying in the city filled with laymen; solitary, free from affection, silent, free from all possessions, devoted to meditation, the Supreme Lord wandered over the earth for three months as an (ordinary) ascetic.
CANDRAPRABHACARITRA
Omniscience (72-74)
In his wandering the Blessed One went again to Sahasrāmravana, and stood in pratima under a punnāga tree. The Lord's destructive karma disappeared at the end of the second pure meditation, like snow at the end of winter. When the Master had fasted two days, his brilliant omniscience was manifested on the seventh of the black half of Phalguna, the moon being in conjunction with Anuradhă.
The samavasarana (75-79)
The Indras of the gods and asuras made at once a samavasaraṇa a yojana in extent for the Teacher of the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
