Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

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

Page 328

288
CHAPTER ELEVEN
though ashamed, could not make it come down.
Hāsā and Prahāsā said: This is the work of those born here. Do not be ashamed. Begin. You must necessarily play the drum.' Then he went in front of the gods, playing the drum and accompanied by Hāsā and Prahāsā singing. The god, excellent Nagila, going on the pilgrimage, saw the god-the drummer in the troupe of Hāsā and Prahāsā. When he saw Vidyunmālin in front playing the drum and knew by clairvoyance that it was his friend, he approached to speak to him. Unable to endure even from afar the light of his body, he (Vidyunmalin) fled even as an owl flees from the light of the sun. Restraining his own splendor so that it was like the evening sun, the Acyuta-god spoke to Vidyunmālin, Look, do you not know me?' The drummer-god replied, 'Pray, who am I, since I do not know even the magnificent gods, Indra and others?' Then the Acyuta-god assumed the form of a layman and enlightened the husband of Hāsā and Prahāsā.
'O friend, you did not follow my advice and rely upon the religion of the Arhat, but-like a foolish moth-underwent the fire-death. I, who knew the religion of the Jina and observed mendicancy, died; and each one of us received a reward according to his acts.'
Then the god, lord of Pañcaśaila, who had attained disgust with the world, asked, 'What am I to do?' and the god Nagila said: 'In the picture-gallery of a householder you should have made a statue of the Lord Mahāvīra, an ascetic in spirit, standing in kayotsarga. Verily, when the image of the Arhat has been ordered made, friend, the seed of knowledge which produces great fruit will shoot up into another existence of yours. Whoever has an image made of the holy Arhats who have conquered love, hatred, and delusion, verily on him religion will bestow heaven and emancipation. There is no inferior birth, no low condition of existence, no poverty, no misfortune, nor anything else contemptible for the worshippers of the Jina.'