Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 2

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

Page 45

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CHAPTER ONE
carrying rows of pennants, smeared with yakṣakardamaointment; accepting at every dais an auspicious lightwaving made by courtesans, accompanied by a concert by a band of musicians; looked at from a distance, like something never seen before, by the citizens with wide-open eyes, as motionless as if painted in a picture; followed on all sides by the people hurrying, as if they were drawn by the power of a charm, as if bewitched, as if dumb, went to the garden purified by the lotus-feet of Acārya Arindama.
The King got out of the palanquin and entered the garden, like the mind of ascetics, on foot. The King took the entire collection of ornaments from his body like the weight of the earth from his arm. At once the King took off the wreath of flowers that had been long worn on his head, like the command of Kandarpa (Love). Standing at the left side of the Acarya, he paid homage to the shrine and then took the broom, etc., the badge of a saint, which were given. The King tore out his hair in five handfuls, saying, "I renounce all censurable activity." Noble-minded, he looked as if he had observed the vow since infancy, because of the ascetic's costume that he adopted at that time. He paid homage to the preceptor accompanied by circumambulation three times and, when he had finished, the preceptor delivered a sermon as follows.
Sermon (255-263)
"A human birth is attained with difficulty in this boundless ocean of human existence, like a conch with whorls to the right in the ocean. Even when a human birth has been attained, the seed of enlightenment is very difficult to obtain; and in it mendicancy is undertaken as a result of merit. The earth suffers from the heat of the sun so long as there is no rain-cloud. The forest is broken by elephants so long as there is no lion. The world is blind from darkness so long as there is no sun.
He
85 251. The broom is an outstanding sign of the Jain monk. never moves without it.