Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

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

Page 99

70
fulfilled by the sight of the wedding-festival of you and their daughters. Take this hereditary kingdom. Henceforth, the taking of the vow is suitable for us in our old age."
CHAPTER TWO
Prince Vāsupujya replied smilingly: "This speech of yours which is in accordance with affection for your son is indeed suitable. But I am exhausted now, like an ox in a caravan, after wandering repeatedly in the forest of existence. There is no country whatever, no city whatever, no village nor mine whatever, no forest nor mountain whatever, no female nor male river whatever, no continent nor ocean whatever, in which I have not wandered with various changes of form for endless time. I shall cut loose from samsara which is the abode of wandering in various birth-nuclei. Enough of marriage and sovereignty, pregnancy-whims of the tree of worldly existence. My father and the world will have festivals at my mendicancy, omniscience, and emancipation, just as at my birth."
King Vasupujya replied with tears in his eyes: "Oh, I know you are eager to cross samsara. You have attained this birth like the shore of the ocean of existence. That is shown by those great dreams indicating the birth of a Tirthakṛt. Beyond doubt you have crossed the ocean of existence; certainly the festivals of initiation, omniscience, and emancipation will take place. Nevertheless, I wish this intermediate festival of yours. It has been observed by our ancestors striving after emancipation. For instance, the blessed Rṣabha, the first of the Ikṣvāku-family, married Sumangala and Sunanda on his father's advice.98 Just because of his father's command, he took the kingdom and governed it, and adopted mendicancy at the right time, after enjoying pleasures. The Lord attained emancipation afterwards by taking initiation. Emancipation is easy to reach, like a village close-by, by people like you. Others, from Ajita to Śreyānsa, married, and supported the earth
98 94. See I, pp. 138 ff.