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CHAPTER III
VIMALANATHACARITRA.
Homage to Vimalanātha whose soul is pure because of the absence of karma, the sole Mt. Hima for the stream of the Gangā of the good proclamation of dharma. Herewith is related the life of the thirteenth Arhat, which is a means for the purification of the world, like the pure water of a sacred place.
Incarnation as Padmasena (3-10) In the continent Dhātakīkhanda in East Videha in the province named Bharata there is a jewel of a city, named Mahāpuri.188 Its king was Padmasena, the abode of Padmā, who was invincible and accessible because of his merits, like the ocean. Chief of the strong and discerning, he made the teaching of the Jinas advance unbroken in his own mind, like his own command in the country. He always felt extreme disgust with existence, though dwelling in this worldly existence like a poor house. Thus disgusted with existence, he went to the teacher Sarvagupta, like a traveler wearied by the road going to a fine tree. He took initiation under him and guarded it completely, like a poor man money that has been acquired, like a sonless man a son. By means of the powerful sthānas, devotion to the Arhats, et cetera, which he observed fittingly, he acquired the bodymaking karma of a Tirthakrt. After practicing severe penance for a long time and completing his life, he died and became a powerful god in Sahasrāra.
138 3. There is no province Bharata, nor Airāvata, in the Videhas according to the usual cosmography, which Hemacandra usually follows. See II, Chapter Three (or I, App. I) and Kirfel. The Vimalanāthacaritra by Jñānasāgara also has Bharata here (1. 79); but this is a late work and he probably followed Hemacandra. In 4.5. 3 Bharata in Videha occurs again and in 4.4.3 Hemacandra has an Airāvata in Videha.
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