Paumacariya 30

English (machine translation) 30

Language: English

30.1

The rainy season, with its loud rumbling of thick clouds, passed away; / and now autumn arrived, with white lotuses on high stalks.

30.2

The moss of clouds having departed, the waters of the sky, with the moon as a swan / and bright stars as white lotuses, brought joy to the people who beheld them in autumn.

30.3

The earth was exceptionally resplendent, / filled with conversation as ruddy shelducks, swans, and cranes called to one another, and its crops fully ripened.

30.4

In this manner, autumn passed for Bhāmaṇḍala, whose heart was gripped / by thoughts of Sītā, tormented by the great fire of passion.

30.5

Then one day the prince, casting aside shame before his father, / spoke to his friend Vasantadhvaja for the sake of Sītā:

30.6

"Do not delay, considering another's business to be cold [and trifling]! / O noble man, why do you not lift me up when I have fallen into the ocean of passion?"

30.7

To the prince who was speaking thus, Vasantadhvaja spoke words, / recounting the story of that maiden as told by discerning people:

30.8

"Prince, having brought us here, we asked Janaka for the maiden, / but he spoke thus: 'She was promised by me first to Rāma.'

30.9

The friend further related the entire matter regarding the bow and the rest, as it had happened: / 'In the midst of kings, Sītā was married by Rāma in grand splendour.

30.10

That maiden was taken to the city of Sāketa by the mighty Rāma. / Prince, even Indra cannot alter what has been previously ordained.'"

30.11

Having heard this speech, the enraged Bhāmaṇḍala spoke thus: / "My status as a Vidyādhara is meaningless without her!"

30.12

Having spoken thus, fully equipped with his forces and clad in armour, / he then set out, turning towards the city of Sāketa.

30.13

As he was travelling through the sky, suddenly seeing the city of Vidarbha, / he remembered his past life and fell unconscious in bewilderment.

30.14

He was carried to his palace by soldiers whose minds were exceedingly agitated; / his limbs moistened with sandalwood water, he regained consciousness that very moment.

30.15

He was asked by Candragati: "Son, for what reason did you swoon? / Setting aside your condition of passion, tell this to me."

30.16

With his head bowed in shame, Bhāmaṇḍala said: "O greatly renowned one! / Through union with deep delusion, I contemplated something improper.

30.17

She whose image was painted on the canvas by Nārada and displayed— / she is my own sister, born from the same womb."

30.18

Candragati spoke again: "Son, explain this clearly: / How is that maiden your own sister? Whose daughter is she?"

30.19

He said: "Father, listen to my conduct in connection with my past birth: / There is a city Vidarbhā in an inaccessible fortress on Mount Mahendra.

30.20

There formerly I was the foremost of kings named Kuṇḍalamaṇḍita; / at that time, overcome by desire, I abducted the wife of a Brahmin.

30.21

Bound by King Anaraṇya, I escaped and roamed about; / there I saw an ascetic whose body was adorned with the splendour of penance.

30.22

Having heard the dharma at the feet of that ascetic, with a purified mind, / though weak in energy, I undertook the vow to abstain from meat in the true doctrine.

30.23

Such is the majesty of the doctrine of the supreme Jinas in this world! / Though I had committed dense evil deeds, even so I did not go to an evil rebirth.

30.24

Having died with restraint, self-control, and unwavering right vision, / I was born [from the womb] of Videhā together with another soul.

30.25

He whose wife I had taken was born as an eminent god; / by him I was abducted and abandoned, after being given jewelled earrings.

30.26

As I was falling, father, seen by you, I was caught and brought here; / I grew up gradually and attained the state of a Vidyādhara."

30.27

Hearing this true account, Candragati, along with his people, was astonished; / uttering cries of reproach, he condemned the nature of saṃsāra.

30.28

Bestowing his kingdom on his son, the king, accompanied by his retinue, / terrified of saṃsāra, went to the ascetic Sarvabhūtaśaraṇa.

30.29

In the Mahendrodaya park, [the king] saw and paid homage to the lion of ascetics, / and said to him: 'O Blessed One! Listen to my words with one-pointed mind.

30.30

Through your grace, having undertaken the Jina's initiation and made my vows, / I desire to go forth from this house that is the cage of mundane existence.'

30.31

And when the sage, with a heart filled with affection, said 'So be it,' / Bhāmaṇḍala then prepared a vast festival of renunciation.

30.32

'May the noble prince Prabhāmaṇḍala, son of the great king Janaka, be victorious!'— / the loud proclamation shouted by the bards began to spread around.

30.33

Sītā, waking from sleep in the palace and hearing that shout, / thought: 'Could this noble son belong to some other Janaka?

30.34

Or has that brother of mine, abducted from the birthing chamber by an enemy, / arrived here through the subsidence of his karma?'

30.35

Then, as the daughter of King Janaka wept, Rāghava spoke these words: / 'O noble lady! Wise people must not grieve over what is dead and gone.'

30.36

Thus at daybreak Daśaratha set out toward the sage, / and accompanied by women, troops, and sons, gradually reached that park.

30.37

There the king saw the vast army of the Vidyādharas, / and the ground adorned with banners, archways, and fluttering flags.

30.38

Having paid homage to that holy man, Daśaratha sat down with his army, / and Bhāmaṇḍala too stood at the feet of the sage.

30.39

Vidyādharas and humans, and the noble sages nearby, their joy aroused, / listened with attentive minds to the dharma issuing from the Guru's mouth:

30.40

pure dharma, with practice for laymen and for the homeless, of many divisions and modes, / producing happiness for bhavya souls and striking fear into the abhavya souls:

30.41

'Endowed with right view, devoted to penance and vows, of purified and steadfast disposition, / and indifferent to the body, ascetics attain the state of the perfected.

30.42

And those who, devoted to the householder's dharma, are endowed with virtues such as worship and giving, / free from faults such as doubt, will become gods of great splendour.

30.43

Having thus practiced the manifold dharma of the supreme Jinas according to proper rule, / they will obtain appropriate abodes in heaven.

30.44

Those abhavya souls, however, who are averse to the word of the Jina and hold wrong views, / experience the suffering of hell and animal rebirth for endless time.'

30.45

Having thus heard the dharma set forth by the noble sage, Daśaratha said: / 'By what cause was Candragati, lord of the skyfarers, enlightened?'

30.46

[The sage said:] 'Wandering through endless mundane existence under the sway of karma, / a boy adorned with noble earrings was taken up by Candragati.

30.47

This noble prince Bhāmaṇḍala gradually grew up, / and seeing the beauty of Janaka's daughter, became afflicted with love.

30.48

He remembered his previous birth, and having fallen into a swoon and regained consciousness again, / the prince, questioned by Candragati, then spoke:

30.49

"Here in the land of Bharata there is the city of Vidarbha with an impregnable rampart; / there I was a king named Varakuṇḍalamaṇḍita.

30.50

I abducted the wife of a brāhmaṇa, and was captured by Bālacandra; / released in the presence of a noble sage, I took the vow to abstain from meat.

30.51

Then, having met my death, through the power of the supreme Jina's dharma / I was conceived in the womb of Janaka's beloved wife alongside a girl.

30.52

And the brāhmaṇa Piṅgala, grieving over the loss of his wife, performed penance, / was born as a deceitful god, and remembered his previous existence.

30.53

As soon as I was born, I was seized by that hostile god / and abandoned on the ground; and again you carried me home.

30.54

Raised in due course, through your virtue I became a Vidyādhara; / when I suddenly fainted, my other birth was remembered by me.

30.55

Vaidehī is my mother, and Janaka my father, of this there is no doubt; / and she, O king, Sītā, is my sister from the same womb."

30.56

Hearing this story, all the Vidyādharas were utterly amazed; / and King Candragati, filled with spiritual urgency, renounced the world.

30.57

Meanwhile, Bhāmaṇḍala asked the lord of sages: 'O illustrious one, / for what reason did Candragati bear immense affection toward me?

30.58

O illustrious one, why was I handed over first to Aṁsumatī, / and supreme joy celebrated at my birth right there in the skyfarers' city?'

30.59

Then the refuge of all living beings said: 'Listen, Bhāmaṇḍala, to this / couple of parents that you had in a previous birth.

30.60

There was a brāhmaṇa in the village of Dāru; his wife was named Vimucī, / Anukrośā and Atibhūti were his children, and Sarasā was his daughter-in-law.

30.61

Then one day a brāhmaṇa, the great sinner named Kadāna, / seeing Sarasā at the river and deluded by passion, abducted her.

30.62

Thereupon that Atibhūti, overwhelmed with grief for his beloved, wandered over the whole earth / searching for her, while his house was plundered.

30.63

Vimucī had earlier wandered toward the southern region, / but hearing of the destruction of his son's household, he returned.

30.64

Seeing Anukrośā wearing rags and extremely distressed, / Vimucī comforted her and wandered the earth together with her.

30.65

In the city of Saccari, he saw a sage endowed with clairvoyance and free of delusion, / and due to grief over his son and daughter-in-law, he attained detachment.

30.66

Seeing the ascetic splendour of the holy man and hearing there of the nature of mundane existence, / his mind filled with spiritual urgency, Vimucī took initiation.

30.67

There that Anukrośā too, before the nun Kamalakāntā, / observing self-restraint, penance, and vows, became a nun, her sins pacified.

30.68

Then both of them died and, through the virtue of penance and vows, / went to the Lokāntika abode in the realm of the gods, constantly luminous and delightful.

30.69

Atibhūti, however, and Kadāna, having died devoid of moral conduct and pitiless, / wandered in the fourfold, terrible cycle of birth fraught with evil rebirths.

30.70

And Sarasā, having taken renunciation and performed penance, died in mental composure; / having accumulated merit, she was born as a goddess named Citrotsavā.

30.71

Through the subsidence of karma, that Kadāna too, in course of time, / was born as Piṅgala, the son of Dhūmaketu.

30.72

Atibhūti also, wandering in mundane existence, was born as a young goose; / being devoured by hawks, he fell near a Jina shrine.

30.73

Hearing the Namokkāra being recited by holy men, he died / and was born in the mountains as a kinnara with a lifespan of ten thousand years.

30.74

Falling from there, he was born in the city of Vidarbha as Kuṇḍalamaṇḍita; / and overcome with passion, he abducted the wife of Piṅgala.

30.75

He who was formerly Vimucī is this king Candravikrama; / and she who was Anukrośā was born here as Aṁsumatī.

30.76

And that Kadāna who abducted Sarasā and wandered in mundane existence / became the ascetic Madhupiṅgala, and having died, was born as an eminent god.'

30.77

And he who was Atibhūti was born as you, Kuṇḍala.
This is your connection with the karma created in a previous existence."

30.78

Having heard this entire narrative, King Daśaratha
embraces prince Bhāmaṇḍala with intense affection.

30.79

Seeing him, her brother, Sītā, filled with sibling affection,
sheds streams of tears and weeps in a sweet voice.

30.80

With a heart longing for so long to see him, having embraced him, she was comforted—
Sītā, lotus-faced, her hair bristling with joy.

30.81

By Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, and the rest of the kinsmen,
the prince was embraced with deep love and affection.

30.82

Having bowed to that ascetic, the Vidyādharas and earth-dwellers together,
complete with horses, elephants, and warriors, entered the city of Sāketa.

30.83

Consulting together with Bhāmaṇḍala, Daśaratha sends a letter
[by] the best of sky-goers, Pavaṇavega, along with a horse.

30.84

Having gone and bowed, Pavaṇagai, the lord of men, Janaka,
was immediately congratulated on the reunion with his son.

30.85

When the letter was delivered, Janaka, delighted upon hearing it,
gives [the messenger] all the ornaments clinging to his own body without remainder.

30.86

Having understood the essence of the letter's contents, the king with his retinue and wife
was congratulated from afar with curious, auspicious shouts.

30.87

The king quickly mounted [the aerial chariot] subject to Vidyādharas together with his wife,
and in a moment arrived at the city of Sāketa.

30.88

Seeing his own son and embracing him, the bull of men weeps,
scorched by the fire of a very long separation, his pair of eyes overflowing.

30.89

Having wept, comforted, he caresses his son limb by limb;
with joy born in his heart, he honors him as though touching sandalwood.

30.90

Seeing her son, his mother fainted, and having regained consciousness there,
the fawn-eyed woman weeps piteously, having gained the hope of life by seeing him after long.

30.91

"From the time, dear son, that you were stolen in childhood by someone,
since then this body of mine has been burned by the fire of anxiety.

30.92

By the rising [sun] of your sight, it has been extinguished, of this there is no doubt;
from today onward my heart is festive with joy.

30.93

Blessed is that Aṁsumatī, by whom your limbs were kissed in childhood,
dear son, when they were soiled with the dust of play!"

30.94

Wiping her pair of eyes, milk [flowing] from her breasts, her limbs thrilled,
Videhā was congratulated on the reunion with her own son.

30.95

For the sake of his son, Janaka holds a great festival of joy at the reunion,
and especially an elaborate lustrum ceremony for the worship of Jina shrines.

30.96

Bhāmaṇḍala said to Rāma: "She is your most precious kin;
Lord, [see to it] that Sītā does not suffer even the slightest distress."

30.97

Having conversed with all, and having sent Janaka to the city of Mithilā,
Bhāmaṇḍala took his [foster] father and went to his own place.

Thus, Śreṇika, behold the exalted store of dharma practiced in the past: the brother Prabhāmaṇḍala became a mind constant in affection and enterprise,
the Vajrāvarta bow was brought under control, and Sītā became the wife of Rāma, the cause of prosperity, whose spotlessly pure fame wanders across the earth.

30.99

Thus ends the thirtieth chapter, titled 'The Manner of Bhāmaṇḍala's Reunion', in the Paümacariya.

Linked texts (1)

Paümacariya — Vimalasūri, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit