________________
274
CHAPTER THREE
goddesses, Rambha, et cetera, performed with devotion a play before the best of munis like Indra. Considering themselves purified, after they had paid homage to the great muni, the goddesses with their retinues returned to their separate places. After he had completed his pratimā lasting a year the great sage wandered over the earth with unequaled vows and restrictions.
King Sahasräyudha, adorned with rows of kings, enjoyed the Śri of sovereignty like a princess whom he had
married.
One day the ganadhara Pihitäśrava, surrounded by various groups of munis, stopped in his city. Sahasrayudha, filled with devotion, came and paid homage to the great muni and listened to his sermon that was like nectar to the ear. Knowing instantly that samsara was worthless like magic, the king at once placed his son Satabali on his throne. He himself became a mendicant under Pihitāśrava and wandered over the earth, after taking twofold discipline.
One day in his wandering Muni Sahasrayudha joined the royal sage Vajrayudha, like Budha (Mercury) the Moon. Father and son, united, always devoted to penance and meditation, enduring trials, indifferent to their own bodies, rich in forbearance, wandering through cities, villages, forests, et cetera, not stopping, passed a long time happily like a day. Then the munis ascended the mountain Iṣatprāgbhāra and observed the fast pādapopagama.
Ninth incarnation as a god (227)
Abandoning their bodies at the end of life the great munis attained at once the wonderful rank of Ahamindra in the third Graiveyaka, a place of extreme magnificence, and remained for the maximum duration of twenty-five sågaras.
18B
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
