Book Title: Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 5
Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

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Page 414
________________ INITIATION, AND OMNISCIENCE OF ŚRI PĀRŚVA 383 had a sôn, Prasenajit, an ocean to the rivers of armies. He has a daughter, Prabhāvati, who is now grown, like a goddess come to earth, whose beauty is unequaled. The Creator made her face from moon-dust, as it were, her eyes from blue lotuses, her body from gold-dust, her hands and feet from red lotuses, as it were, her thighs from the inside of plantains, her nails from rubies, and her creeper-like arms from lotus-fibers, as it were. Seeing her with unequaled beauty and grace, grown up, Prasenajit became anxious about a suitable husband for her. He examined many princes, but he did not consider any one suitable in beauty for his daughter. One day Prabhāvati went to a garden accompanied by her friends and heard a song in ślokas being sung by Kinnarīs: "The son of Aśvasena, king of holy Vārāṇasī, Sri Pārsvanātha, excels with a wealth of beauty and grace. She, by whom he will be obtained as a husband, is victorious on earth. But whence is there such maturing of merit with a husband, hard to attain?' Hearing such celebration of Sri Pārsvanātha's virtues, Prabhāvati became infatuated with him, as if absorbed in him. Kāma, defeated by Pārśva in beauty, struck the infatuated girl with arrows pitilessly as if from hostility. Abandoning other amusement and modesty, like a doe she listened again and again to their song, her mind on one thing. By her very listening to that song, Prabhāvati's love for Pārsva was seen by her friends. For what is overlooked by the experts ? Prabhāvati continued for a long time to look up at the Kinnaris who had flown up, her mind distracted, in the power of the demon Smara. Her friends, intelligent, made her move and led her to her house, meditating on Pārsvanātha, like a yogini. An ornament became like a fire; a fine garment like a fire of chaff; a necklace like the blade of a sword for her with her mind fixed on him. There was heat in her body (enough) to cook a handful of water and a succession of tears to fill sauce-pans cooking a measure of grain. Neither in the Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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