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CHAPTER THREE Sakra's charioteer came, bowed, got down from his chariot and said with folded hands:
“Indra, knowing that you wish to fight for sport, master, sent a battle-chariot with me as a charioteer. He knows that the three worlds are like straw compared with the master's strength. Nevertheless, Saksa shows his devotion to you at the right time.”
As a favor to Sakra, the Master got into the great chariot filled with various weapons, which did not touch the surface of the ground. Sri Pārsvanātha advanced, hymned by the Vidyādharas, with the chariot going through the air, with great splendor like the sun. The Lord's army, skilled in battle, adorned with soldiers looking up to see the Master again and again, followed on the ground. The Master, able to go in a moment, alone competent for victory, went with short marches at his soldiers request. In some days he reached Kuśasthala and then camped in a seven-storied palace made by the gods in a garden.
“ This is the custom of warriors,” the Lord, impelled by compassion, sent an intelligent messenger with instructions to Yavana. He went to Yavana and said eloquently from the Master's power: “ Prince śrīmat Pārsva instructs you by my mouth: ‘King Prasenajit, who has sought protection from my father, must be freed from the siege and hostility by you now, o king. I, after restraining with difficulty my father who had started, have come to this country merely for that reason. Return to your own place. Submit at once. This transgression of yours can be tolerated only if you go away.””
Yavana, his brow terrible from frowns, said: “Messenger, why do you say this! Do you not know me? Who is this boy Pārsva who has come here for battle from a caprice? Who is the old man Aśvasena who started first? Both of them and other kings, their partisans--what do they amount to? Therefore, go! Let Pārsva go also with the desire for his own welfare. You are not to be killed because you are a messenger, though saying harsh things. Escaping alive, go and tell
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