Paumacariya 13

English (machine translation) 13

Language: English

13.1

Then Indra's warriors, putting that Sahasrāra at their head, / arrived at Rāvaṇa's palace, announced by the doorkeeper, and were granted an audience.

13.2

Having bowed his head, [Sahasrāra] sat upon a nearby seat; / then Sahasrāra spoke to the ten-faced one with great respect:

13.3

"Regarding the masculine valor, heroism, and majesty that you have displayed: / release [him]! There is no purpose in keeping this Indra imprisoned."

13.4

Then the ten-faced one said: "If, for my sake, you perform the service of Laṅkā / untiringly, day after day, at your appointed time:

13.5

having swept and smeared the ground of this city, / worship it with heavenly, fragrant, sweet-scented flowers.

13.6

If you perform such service for me from this day forth, / then I shall release Indra; otherwise, under what other condition?"

13.7

What Rāvaṇa had spoken, Sahasrāra, together with the Lokapālas, / consented to entirely for the sake of freeing Indra.

13.8

Released by the lord of Laṅkā, Indra was honored with the wealth of choice gifts and respect; / and [Rāvaṇa] said: "From this day forth, you are my brother.

13.9

Enjoy Mount Vaitāḍhya, dwelling in the city of Rathanūpuracakravāla; / experience pleasure pleasing to the senses and the mind at your desire."

13.10

Having spoken thus, Sahasrāra, united with the lord of gods / and the Lokapālas, reached the city of Rathanūpuracakravāla.

13.11

Praised by Vidyādharas, Śakra entered his own palace; / the remaining Lokapālas also went to their own cities together with their retinues.

13.12

Indra, depressed in mind, found no contentment in his palace or on his seat, / nor in the excellent flower-gardens, nor in the delightful lotus-lake.

13.13

Indra did not set his mind upon lovely women; overcome with anxiety, he went / to the Jina shrine, bowed down, and, reflecting, wished for renunciation.

13.14

"Fie, fie! Alas, an unworthy deed! What is the use of the wealth of sky-goers, / flickering like lightning, resembling a streak of Indra's bow (a rainbow)?

13.15

Those very same magic arts, those warriors, and those elephants and horses, / and the strength of [my] arms, like straw, have become spent upon the exhaustion of merit.

13.16

Under the guise of an enemy, the lord of Laṅkā has become my greatest friend, / by whom I, attached to worthless pleasures, have been awakened here.

13.17

Having abandoned all sensual union, pleasing to the senses and mind, / I shall undertake the sin-destroying renunciation in the doctrine of the supreme Jinas."

13.18

At this time and place, a sādhu named Nirvāṇasaṅgama / descended from the path of the sky to that very same Jina shrine.

13.19

Having seen the lord of sages, Śakra stood up, full of joy; / bowing his head, he paid homage with supreme devotion.

13.20

The sādhu too, having performed the customary rites before the moon-like images of the lord of Jinas, / sat upon the offered seat, radiant with the splendour of ascetic power.

13.21

Bowing once more to the sage, Śakra asked with great humility: / "O master! Tell me about my previous birth, exactly as it happened."

13.22

Then the sādhu began to relate that story of [his] past life: / "Wandering [in saṁsāra] somehow or other, you obtained a human birth.

13.23

In the city named Śikhipura, born there in a destitute family, / [you were] miserable, devoid of auspicious marks or virtues, your body afflicted by hundreds of diseases.

13.24

Her mother and father both died through the workings of karma; / somehow or other she kept herself alive on food left over by the people.

13.25

Her hands and pair of feet were cracked, her body dry, wearing wretched rags; / with an afflicted mind she wandered about, frightened by the townsfolk.

13.26

Through the shedding of karma, having died, she was reborn there / as the wife of a Kiṁpuruṣa, by the name of Kṣīradhārā.

13.27

Falling from there, in the womb of Dhāriṇī in Ratnapura, / she was born as the son of the householder Gomukha, named Sahasrabhāga.

13.28

Having attained right view, fully endowed with the minor vows, / Sahasrabhāga died and was then born in the Śukra celestial vehicle.

13.29

Falling from the celestial vehicle, in the previous city of Ratnasañcaya— / in the city of Maṇirada—he was born as the son of Guṇavallī.

13.30

Then he, Nandivardhana, having ruled the kingdom, renounced together with a supreme Jina; / having performed austerities, he reached the supreme Graiveyaka [heaven].

13.31

Having enjoyed the excellent bliss of an Ahamindra, he fell and in this Bhāratavarṣa / you, Indra, were born to Manasundarī as the son of Sahasrāra.

13.32

Having obtained the status of Indra due to a mental longing at the time in the womb, / he was born here in the city of Cakravāla as the sovereign of the Vidyādharas.

13.33

Why do you grieve so deeply: 'Ah, I was defeated in battle'? / By this very cause you will be freed from the stain of karma.

13.34

Do you not remember what was done formerly in sport through wicked conduct? / I shall tell all of it plainly and clearly; listen with a single mind!

13.35

In the city of Ariñjayapura, there was a king of sky-goers named Jvalanaśikha; / his wife was Vegavatī, and their daughter was Ahalyā.

13.36

At her svayaṁvara, various kinds of Vidyādharas assembled; / with an abundance of army and power, you too arrived right there.

13.37

The lord of the excellent city of Candrāvarta, named Ānandamālin, / was chosen at the svayaṁvara through the power of past-life karma.

13.38

Having wed that maiden, full of beauty and youth, / the king, plunged into an ocean of pleasure, enjoyed delights like an excellent god.

13.39

From that time forth, your body filled with fury driven by jealousy, / you did not let go of your resentment toward that Nandimālin.

13.40

Then once upon a time, awakened by the arising of ascetic karma, / Nandimālin went forth, renouncing possessions and worldly undertakings.

13.41

Wandering about, he reached the bank of the Haṁsāvalī river; / accompanied by śramaṇas, that great-souled one was seen by you as you wandered.

13.42

And the sādhu was recognized, standing in meditation on Mount Rathāvarta; / all that past event regarding Ahalyā was remembered by you.

13.43

By you, enraged, the śramaṇa was bound across all his limbs; / even so, the śramaṇa did not tremble, like Mount Meru against gusts of wind.

13.44

The śramaṇa's own brother, a sādhu named Kalyāṇaguṇadhara, / having seen the affliction, became enraged and assumed the pratimā posture.

13.45

Determined to burn [you] swiftly with the fire of wrath as an equal, / that great sage, [endowed with] all glory, was pacified by your wife.

13.46

Having observed that woman, whose mind was cultivated with right view, / the śramaṇa was moved to compassion and his mind became serene at that very moment.

13.47

That fool who blames, strikes, or curses a sādhu of firm conduct, / who is free from possessiveness and egotism, obtains a long saṁsāra.

13.48

Knowing thus the distinction between merit and defeat, [know that] / only through dharma is this entire reservoir of suffering cut off."

13.49

Having heard his own deeds, Śakra, with true inner feeling arisen from spiritual urgency, / bowed down while seated before the sage again and again, having understood the ultimate truth.

13.50

Having given the instruction, the sādhu departed for his own abode; / and Indra established his son Vīryadatta over the entire kingdom.

13.51

Having taken leave of his mother, father, kinsmen, and wives, / Śakra undertook renunciation, taught by the Jina, for the sake of release from suffering.

Having performed courses of austerities through reciprocal yogic practices, and having completely destroyed the taint of karma, / Indra, his state immaculate, pure, and stainless upon the arising of knowledge, attained ultimate bliss, his goal fully accomplished.

13.53

Thus ends the thirteenth chapter, entitled "The Attainment of Nirvāṇa by Indra", in the Paümacariya.

Linked texts (1)

Paümacariya — Vimalasūri, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit