Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

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

Page 167

138
CHAPTER FIVE
and then he himself thought of initiation when the right time had come.
Initiation (54-63) Reminded by the Laukāntika-gods, " Found a congregation, O Master," the Lord gaye gifts for a year, the mouth of the river of initiation, Consecrated by the gods, the Lord got into a palanquin named Nāgadattā and went to a beautiful garden Vaprakāñcana. The Lord entered the garden which had the beauty of the cool season; where there was a swarm of buzzing bees intoxicated by the mass of priyangu-blossoms; where the women-gardeners were busy with wreathing ornaments of Alexandrian laurel; whose face had been rubbed with rodhra-powder by the townswomen; adorned with armories of Love, as it were, with blooming jasmines; with girl-gardeners engaged in cutting flowers of the lavali; its ground wet with drops of water from the juice of the mucukunda; its surface paved with emeralds, as it were, by the sweet marjoram.
On the thirteenth day of the bright half of Māgha, in the constellation Puspa, in the afternoon, the Lord became a mendicant with a thousand kings, with a two-day fast. On the next day in the house of Dharmasinha in Saumanasa, the Lord broke his fast with rice-pudding. The five divine things, the rain of treasure, et cetera, took place there and Dharmasinha made a jeweled platform where the Master had stood. Indifferent to his own body, unstumbling like the wind, the Teacher of the World set out from that place to wander over the earth.
Narrative of Sudarśana, Puruşasinha, and Niśumbha (64–193)
Previous birth of Sudarśana (64-70) Now in the city Aśokā in West Videha in Jambūdvipa there lived a king, Puruşavrşabha. Always disgusted with existence, knowing the Principles, virtuous, he became a mendicant at the feet of Muni Prajāpāla. After practicing severe penance, he died when the time had come, and