Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 4

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

Page 107

CHAPTER VII
ŚRI MUNISUVRATANATHACARITRA
May the waves of the Ocean of Milk of knowledge, by which the earth has been purified, the color of teeth, be victorious in the teaching of Munisuyratanātha. Lord Munisuvrata's life will be narrated, spotless, coming from Sarasvati, as it were, for the increase of knowledge of the wise.
Incarnations as Suraśrestha and a god (3-II) In this same Jambūdvīpa in the East Videhas in the province Bharata, there is a broad city Campā. Here Suraśreștha was king, like the chief of the gods, long-armed, having extraordinary power. He was a fourfold hero: a protector of the poor, eager in battle, resembling a kalpa tree in granting wishes, the head of the Jaina religion. He showed skill in weapons at the times of military exercises, to be sure, but not on battle-fields, subduing kings by his commands. Even munis, observing silence, destroyed their silence, describing his virtues, reverence, et cetera, day and night.
One day he, wise, paid homage devotedly to Muni Nandana, giving joy to the heart, who had stopped in a garden. After hearing his sermon, he attained meditation on disgust with existence, a flood for the mud of delusion. He became a mendicant at the feet of the same muni and observed the vow properly, a crest-jewel of the noble. He acquired body-making karma of a Tīrthakrt by the sthānas, devotion to the Arhats, et cetera and became a chief-god in Prāṇata after his death.