Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

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

Page 230

FIVE PREVIOUS INCARNATIONS
The Brahman, himself, modest, taught the Vedas and their supplements with their esoteric meanings to his sons borne by Yasobhadra. Kapila, who was extremely intelligent, listened in silence and became thoroughly conversant with the ocean of Vedas. What does not belong to the sphere of intelligence? With the appearance of a learned man, he left his father's house, put the double sacred cord around his neck and, saying, "I am the best of Brahmans," in a voice like beating a drum, wandered in foreign countries. What country is foreign to the learned? As he wandered gradually, he arrived at the town Ratnapura and made a display of learning, thundering like a cloud of the rainy
season.
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In this town there lived a teacher of all the townsmen, a depository of arts, named Satyaki, adorned with pupils who were receptacles of intelligence. Kapila went every day to Satyaki's school and solved the doubts of the students who asked questions. In astonishment Satyaki, knowing the collection of Vedic texts, questioned him from curiosity about the esoteric meanings, difficult to know, of the sacred books. Kapila recited them in detail to him, observed by the trusting students with the idea that he was a teacher. Satyaki made him head of his work in the school, like a king appointing an heir-apparent. Where are brilliant qualities not valuable? Daily, Kapila gave explanations to all the pupils and Satyaki, free from anxiety, treated him like his own son. Kapila showed extreme devotion to Satyaki like a father and Satyaki, delighted, thought, "What can I do for him?"
Then Satyaki's wife, named Jambukā, said: "Even if you are giving it your attention, still I remind you: You have a daughter, Satyabhama, borne by me, endowed with infinite beauty and grace like a daughter of the gods, well-bred, modest, endowed with forbearance, humility, and sincerity. Why do you not search for a husband who has attained adolescence for her? How can a man sleep