Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

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

Page 83

MAHĀVIRA'S FIRST SIX YEARS AS AN ASCETIC next one, pleasure or pain, existence or emancipation; wishing to lift up this foolish world submerged in the ocean of existence by intelligence devoted solely to disinterested compassion; unhindered like the wind, the Lord wandered over the earth which is girdled by the ocean and (covered) with various villages, cities, and forests.
Bees, attracted by the fragrance of the Lord's ointment which was made by the gods at the time of his initiation, flew to him as he approached. The young men of the villages asked the Lord about the preparation of perfume and the young women asked to touch his body as a remedy for excessive love-fever.
From the day of his initiation for more than four months, the Lord of the World, firm as a mountain, endured attacks.
The Lord's stay at Morāka (49–74)
One day the Master went in his wandering to the hamlet Morāka which was crowded with ascetics called “Dūijjantaka."77 Their abbot, who was a friend of his father, approached the Lord and the Master extended his hand to him from former custom. At the abbot's invitation Siddhārtha's distinguished son spent one night there in the one-night statuesque posture. To the Blessed One on the point of leaving at daybreak the abbot said, “ You must pass the rainy season here in a solitary dwelling.” The Lord, sinless, agreed to his proposal at his insistence and, spotless as a conch, went elsewhere.
Unhindered like the wind, stainless as a lotus-leaf, the Master passed the hot season, wandering in all directions. Recalling the invitation of the abbot, Siddhārtha's friend, the Master went again to Morāka to pass the rainy season. It thundered with clouds raining like a continuous shower-bath and travelers went to their homes, like hansas. The abbot, his heart tender from the bond of affection and being a cousin of the Lord, assigned him a house with a thatched roof. With his arms hanging down to his knees, his hair twisted like a tree
17 49. The Rajendra. tells no more about these ascetics.