Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

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

Page 256

FIVE PREVIOUS INCARNATIONS
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me initiation now as a pupil." He was accepted by Acala with the words, " That is suitable."
Approaching Amitatejas, he said respectfully: “Even though I am proud, I am not ashamed to make humble submission to you whose grandfather is this worshipful Jvalanajațin, like a flame to the fuel of karma, like dharma victorious before one's eyes; whose father is this Arkakīrti, blessed, fortunate, who abandoned power like straw, a sun with brilliance in the form of penance, you who are a future cakrin and a future Arhat. This kingdom of mine in Camaracañcā, these sons, Ašvaghoşa, et cetera, and everything else are yours. Do not think otherwise."
After this speech, he set his eldest son, Aśvaghoşa, on Amitatejas's lap, like a child. Then Indrāśani's son in company with many kings took mendicancy under Acala Svāmin. Srivijaya's mother, Svayamprabhā, came there and also adopted mendicancy at the feet of Acala Svāmin. Amitatejas, King Śrīvijaya, Ašvaghoşa, et cetera, bowed to Bala and went to their respective homes.
Srivijaya and Amitatejas spent their time holding distinguished eight-day festivals in the temples of the Arhats, always very magnificent like Sakra and Iśāna; making their wealth accomplish its purpose by giving sādhus presents which were always free from faults, acceptable, free from life; taking away pain from the afflicted whose minds were burned by the summer heat of a succession of anxieties, like the east wind and a cloud; meditating day and night in their conversation on the esoteric chapters of the scriptures heard in the guru's presencethey, the chief of the intelligent; abandoning the society of evil teachers like the shade of the vibhitaka; 288
288 450. Vibhitaka is ordinarily interpreted as Terminalia belerica, which does not suit here. MC says that "in popular understanding and use" it is Semecarpus anacardium. Balfour, s.v., says of the S. anacardium that people "accidentally sleeping under the tree when in blossom, or even going near the flowers, are stupefied and have their faces and