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CHAPTER TWO
And now Arvinda, Lord of Potana, was amusing himself with the women of his household on top of the palace in autumn. While he was amusing himself, he saw a newly-risen cloud, filled with a rainbow and lightning, spreading over the sky in a moment. While the king was saying, “ Look at its beauty!” the cloud, struck by a strong wind, dispersed like a bunch of cotton. After seeing that, the king reflected: “ Other things in saṁsāra are like this. The body, et cetera are gone as soon as seen. What confidence in that (samsāra) is there on the part of a discerning man?” .: As the king was rellecting assuredly to this effect, his knowledge-obscuring and conduct-deluding karma reached destruction and quiescence. With clairvoyance produced at once, the king installed his son Mahendra in his place and took the vow at the feet of Ācārya Samantabhadra. With his guru's permission, engaged in solitary wandering and fasts, Muni Aravinda wandered, as if to cut the road of births. As he wandered, indifferent to the body, there was no stopping at all in a solitary place, dwelling, village, or city.
One day, his body emaciated by penance, having made numerous special vows, he went to Aștāpada with the caravan of the trader, Sāgaradatta. Sāgaradatta asked the muni, " Where are you going?” He replied, “We are going to Mt. Aștāpada to pay homage to the gods.” Again the trader asked: “ What gods are on that mountain? By whom were they made? How many are they? What fruit is there for you in their worship?"
Knowing that he had attained suitability for emancipation, Rși Aravinda said to him, “No others, except the Arhats, are worthy to become gods, sir.” “Who are the Arhats?” “They who are free from passion, omniscient, worshipped by Sakra, saviors of the whole universe by teaching of dharma. Cakrin Bharata, Rşabha's son, had the statues of the twentyfour Arhats, Rşabha and the others, made of jewels there (Aștāpada). The chief fruit of homage to them is emancipation, but other incidental fruit is attainment of the rank of
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