Paumacariya 39
English (machine translation) 39
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39.1
Then the sons of Daśaratha, taking their ease, entered the great forest, / which was rich in the fragrance of flowers, bushes, and creepers of various kinds of noble trees,
39.2
having comforts brought to them by gods, possessing great majesty born of bodily marks, / holding jewel-bows in their hands, fearless and steadfast like lions.
39.3
In some places it was dark as rain-clouds, in some places marked with coral-like mountain minerals, / in some places, laden with flowers, it bore the white hue of cranes.
39.4
Having thus in due course traversed the forest, they arrived there / at the city named Vaṁsasthala near Mount Vaṁśagiri.
39.5
Just then, the townspeople were running towards them in very great numbers, / rushing with one another in panic, suddenly fleeing afar.
39.6
Then Rāghava questioned one man: "From fear of whom / is this folk fleeing? Tell me this quickly!"
39.7
He said: "Today is the third day on this mountain peak / that an exceedingly terrible sound, producing dread in the people, is heard.
39.8
If someone comes tonight, who will be our protector? / From fear of him this populace, along with the monarch, is fleeing."
39.9
Hearing this word, the daughter of Janaka spoke thus to Rāghava: / "Let us also flee to where these townspeople are going."
39.10
And she was told by Rāghava: "Fair one, do noble men flee? / Even when an affair ends in death, when it confronts them, they face it."
39.11
Though thus restrained, Padma set out together with Saumitri / towards Mount Vaṁśagiri, having placed the daughter of Janaka behind.
39.12
They began ascending Mount Vaṁśagiri, which was covered with uneven rocks, peaks, and cascades, / scraping the vault of heaven, reaching near the planetary hosts.
39.13
Supporting her hand in his hand, and in uneven places lifting her in his arms, / with great difficulty Sītā was brought up the noble mountain by Rāma.
39.14
There on top of the noble mountain they presently saw two bulls among ascetics, / with both arm-tips hanging down, absorbed in meditation, freed from delusion.
39.15
Accompanied by the daughter of Janaka, both went with sincere devotion, / and with the bud of folded hands placed at their heads, stood near them.
39.16
Just then they saw many terrifying serpents all around, / of the color of black bees and collyrium, emitting terrible hisses;
39.17
and those ascetics were seen by the sons of Daśaratha / surrounded by scorpions of various colors and terrible vipers.
39.18
Striking far away the scorpions and snakes with the tips of their bows, / both Lakṣmaṇa and Padma then became joyful at heart.
39.19
Having washed the pair of the ascetics' feet with cascade water, / Rāma worshipped them with creeper-flowers presented by Lakṣmaṇa.
39.20
And thereupon both Haladhara and Nārāyaṇa, exceedingly delighted, / along with the daughter of Janaka, performed homage to the sages according to their power.
39.21
Taking a lute of captivating sound, Padma played it according to rule, / and sang varied songs connected with the virtues of the ascetics.
39.22
With devotion, the daughter of Janaka began to dance before the ascetics, / displaying graceful charm, dramatic expression, and restless thighs.
39.23
Just then the sun set, staining the sky, / and as if terrified of the affliction, vanished along with his host of rays.
39.24
Suddenly the vault of the sky was covered over by hundreds of thousands of spirits / discharging streams of fire that sprang from the clash of their fangs.
39.25
They hurled heads, corpses, and limbs of various kinds, / and rained down dense showers of blood with crackling noises.
39.26
Some had tridents in hand; others held swords, clubs, and javelins in their hands; / they agitated the circle of the ten directions with terrifying burst of loud laughter.
39.27
Bearing terrifying appearances blazing with the faces of elephants, tigers, lions, leopards, and jackals, / the spirits then began to agitate the ascetics whose sins were pacified.
39.28
Seeing the multitude of numerous vetālas and spirits, / Sītā abandoned the performance of dancing and clung to Rāma in terror.
39.29
And she was told by Rāghava: "Stay, blessed one, at the feet of the sages! / Accompanied by Lakṣmaṇa, I shall destroy this affliction."
39.30
Taking their excellent bows, both twanged them with great force; / by that sound the entire mountain seemed to shake.
39.31
Then that celestial being dwelling among the Jyotiṣkas, named Analaprabha, / recognized through the sphere of clairvoyant knowledge: "These are Haladhara and Nārāyaṇa."
39.32
Having dispelled that affliction of the noble ascetics produced by magical display, / he went to his own vimāna, and the sky became utterly clear.
39.33
And when the miracle was produced for the ascetics by Haladhara and Nārāyaṇa, / through the destruction of karma, omniscience arose.
39.34
And then the four classes of gods and hosts of men gathered; / having praised the lions among ascetics, they sat down according to propriety.
39.35
Having bowed to the kevalins with true devotion, / Rāma and Saumitri sat down on both sides of Sītā.
39.36
Then, amid the host of gods, Padma questioned the great sage: / “By what meritless one was this affliction caused against you tonight, O noble one?”
39.37
Then the omniscient one began to narrate the sequence of past births: / “There was indeed a famous city named Padminī.
39.38
A king named Vijayaparvata ruled that excellent city; / his wife, whose form was like a celestial nymph, was Dhāriṇī.
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In that very place lived an envoy, Amṛtaśarīra, skilled in diverse branches of learning; / Upayogā was his wife, and she had two handsome sons.
39.40
One of them was named Udita, and the second was named Mudita. / That envoy of the king was sent on a mission as an ambassador.
39.41
Together with Vasubhūti, an intimate friend hypocritically displaying affection, / he went to a foreign territory, wasting away his body day by day.
39.42
The Brahmin Vasubhūti, enamored of his wife, / returned by stealth in the nights after killing the envoy.
39.43
Vasubhūti told the people: ‘I was sent back by him.’ / And he made an evil scheme together with the envoy’s wife.
39.44
Then Upayogā said: ‘Having killed both these sons, / I shall enjoy unhindered pleasure with you for a very long time.’
39.45
All that was told exactly as it happened to Udita / by the Brahmin woman Rati, Vasubhūti’s wife, who was filled with jealousy.
39.46
Then, overcome with fury, Udita with a sharp, excellent sword / killed that wicked Brahmin; [the latter] was reborn as a mleccha in a wild hamlet.
39.47
Then once upon a time, with the fourfold congregation of śramaṇas, / the virtuous monk Mativardhana arrived at the city of Padminī.
39.48
At that time there was a renowned leader of the entire host named Anuddhṛti, / devoted to virtuous meditation, striving for loving affection and illumination of the doctrine.
39.49
Together with the congregation of śramaṇas, that monk Mativardhana, chief of the troop, / sat in an excellent park in a place free from mobile beings.
39.50
Having gone to the best of kings, the park-keeper reported: / ‘Master, the śramaṇas have arrived at the Vasantatilaka garden.’
39.51
Hearing this speech, King Vijayaparvata went / and bowed to the śramaṇas, Mativardhana and the others, who had pacified sin.
39.52
Having bowed to the noble sage, he said: ‘I have longing for sensual pleasures; / Reverend one, I am unable to maintain the conduct of a monk.’
39.53
The sage, who understood the reality, said: ‘O king, this thirst of yours for pleasures / generates hundreds of thousands of rebirths and causes bondage in saṁsāra.
39.54
Life is like the flapping of an elephant’s ear, fickle as a flash of lightning; / affection for kin and sensual pleasures are like dreams.
39.55
In a body that is momentary and fragile, naturally foul-smelling, / terrible like hell, disgusting, and the dwelling of hosts of worms, what pleasure can there be?
39.56
Having dwelt in the womb, a mire of impure fat, semen, mucus, blood, and urine, filthy by nature, / you yearn for that very thing again!
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Those men who are passionately attached to sensual objects in such a body / wander in terrible saṁsāra, filled with thousands of miseries.
39.58
Restrain with the goad of knowledge the elephant of the mind, / as it rushes along the narrow paths of sensual objects, being endowed with the power of detachment.
39.59
Bow to the Jina, O king, offering devotion and abandoning wrong view, / so that you may cross the ocean of saṁsāra without obstacles.
39.60
Quickly destroying the great army of delusion, the enemy, with the sword of self-restraint, / enter the city of perfection and rule a realm free from fear!’
39.61
When King Vijayaparvata was addressed in this way by the excellent sage, / he was seized with spiritual urgency and renounced the world beside the sage.
39.62
Hearing the knowledge taught by the Jina there, both brothers as well, / having compassionate feeling produced by detachment, adopted monkhood.
39.63
While traveling there toward Mount Sammeta for the purpose of paying homage, / they strayed from the path and reached the hamlet of the Ṛṣiṇḍas.
39.64
And that Vasubhūti, having become a mleccha, saw those monks there / and began to revile them with harsh and abusive words.
39.65
Seeing that mleccha approaching like Death, the monks consciously / took the formal vow of renunciation and assumed the statue-posture.
39.66
The wicked mleccha reached their presence, eager to kill them, / but was seen by a general and held back by the power of destiny.
39.67
Padma said to the sage: ‘When they were being attacked by the mleccha in this way, / for what reason were both of them held back by the general?’
39.68
The sage, knowing the truth by means of omniscience, related the deeds of their past life: / ‘Two brothers, farmers, lived at a shrine of a yakṣa.
39.69
Those compassionate farmers, paying a price, released a bird / that had been captured by a hunter for the sake of food.
39.70
Then, having met his death, that bird was reborn as a mleccha chieftain, / and both those farmers were born as Udita and Mudita.
39.71
Because that bird was saved by the farmers when he was being killed, / therefore the monks also were saved at that time by the general.
39.72
Indeed, whatever deed has been acquired by a soul in a past life, / that must be experienced by him as he wanders in saṁsāra.
39.73
Having thus escaped from the affliction, the monks went on / and made obeisance to the Jina with devotion on Mount Sammeta.
39.74
Having practiced knowledge, faith, and conduct according to the rule for a long time, / the monks, upon the exhaustion of their life span, were reborn in the world of the gods.
39.75
Vasubhūti too, having wandered for a long time in hells and among animals, / attained human birth and became an ascetic wearing matted hair.
39.76
And having performed foolish austerities, he was born as a god among the Jyotiṣkas, / named Agniketu, of false belief and great evil.
39.77
In Bharata, in the city of Ariṣṭapura, lived a king named Priyamvada; / he had two wives, Padmābhā and Kāñcanābhā.
39.78
Fallen from the world of gods, a son was born to Padmābhā / [named] Ratnaratha, and [another named] Vicitraratha, with splendor resembling princes of the gods.
39.79
Falling [from heaven], that Jyotiṣka god was born as the son of Kanakābhā; / a receptacle of many virtues, he was famous by the name Anuddhṛti.
39.80
Having given the kingdom to his sons, Priyamvada fasted for six days in a temple of the Jina / and, meeting his death through saṁlekhanā, reached the realm of the gods.
39.81
In that very city was a princess named Śrīprabhā, whose limbs were like the goddess Śrī; / both princes, Ratnaratha and Anuddhṛti, sought her hand.
39.82
She was then obtained by Ratnaratha; hearing this, Anuddhṛti was enraged, / and accompanied by an army, he destroyed his entire territory.
39.83
Then, having seized him along with Citraratha,
Ratanaratha inflicted five punishments on him and banished him from his own country.
39.84
Because of the fault of enmity born of insult, humiliation, and defeat,
he became an ascetic wearing bark garments and sporting a crown of long matted hair.
39.85
Both of those own brothers, having taken renunciation there,
passed away and were born as gods of great power in the world of gods.
39.86
Having enjoyed divine bliss and fallen [from heaven], they were born in the womb of Vimalā
as sons of Khemankara, the ruler of the city of Siddhattha.
39.87
The first, possessed of handsome limbs, was named Desabhūsaṇa,
and the second was Kulabhūsaṇa, who was constantly adorned with virtues.
39.88
Then, entrusted by the king, those two well-disciplined brothers
learned all arts in the presence of Sāgaraghosa.
39.89
Living in their guru's house, they did not even know their retinue or kin;
every item for bodily maintenance was supplied to them right there.
39.90
Once, after a long time, the teacher took the excellent princes
and went before Khemankara, and he was honored by him.
39.91
Seeing a girl standing in the mansion's lattice window,
both princes, desiring her in their hearts, gazed with unblinking eyes.
39.92
[Thinking:] "Truly, because we desire a wife, a girl has arrived immediately upon our thought;
she has been brought for us, of this there is no doubt."
39.93
Meanwhile, the bards there proclaimed: "May King Khemankara conquer,
along with Queen Vimalā, whose handsome sons are these!
39.94
May this excellent maiden, Kamalussavā, clinging to the lattice window,
this abode of virtues whose uterine brothers are these heroes, conquer for a very long time!"
39.95
Hearing that proclamation of the bard, when both knew
that she was their uterine sister, they were filled with spiritual urgency.
39.96
"Fie, alas! A vile deed! All this is the sport of delusion,
that even our uterine sister was desired [by us] bewildered by passion!"
39.97
Reflecting on this, both experienced profound spiritual urgency,
and leaving behind their sorrow-stricken mother and father, they renounced the world.
39.98
King Khemankara too, abandoning worldly activities because of separation from his sons,
delighted in self-restraint, penance, and vows; upon dying, he became the lord of the Garuḍas.
39.99
Then, recalling the affliction of his sons by the shaking of his seat,
that great-souled one came here, and he is this Mahālocana.
39.100
That Anuddhara, too, taking his community, arrived with the pious community
at the city of Komuī, where the king was Suhādhāra.
39.101
His beloved was Raī, and his second, kept [mistress] was Mayaṇavegā;
in the presence of the sage Varadatta, she became devoted to right view.
39.102
Then one day the king, amazed, said before Mayaṇā:
"These ascetics here perform terrible ascetic practices."
39.103
Then Mayaṇavegā said: "O master, what penance is there for these deluded fools,
these wicked ones who are devoid of right view, knowledge, and conduct?"
39.104
Hearing this speech, the king was enraged, and she was spoken to [by him]:
"Behold them shortly, fallen from conduct!"
39.105
Having spoken thus, she went to her home; at nightfall,
she sent her daughter Nāgadattā to the ascetics' hermitage.
39.106
And going there, that maiden showed her body,
smeared with excellent saffron, to the preceptor of ascetics engaged in meditation.
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[Showing] uncovered breasts, the circle of her navel resembling an elephant's frontal globe,
her broad hips, and thighs like the trunks of plantain trees.
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Seeing that excellent-bodied girl, the ascetic was agitated and cried out:
"O maiden! Whose daughter are you? For what purpose have you come here?"
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Then that maiden said: "O you who are tender to those who come for refuge, listen!
Without any fault, I have been cast out from home by my mother.
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With limbs clad in saffron robes, I too will take your attire;
approve it, O illustrious one, and be tender to one who has come for refuge!"
39.111
As soon as the maiden spoke thus, the ascetic exclaimed:
"Who am I to grant refuge, beloved? Rather, you are my refuge!"
39.112
Having spoken thus, he thought in his mind, "She is candid,"
and his limbs scorched by the fire of passion, he proceeded to embrace her in his arms.
39.113
"No, no! This deed must not happen; I am an unmarried girl;
go and ask my mother, what authority do we have?"
39.114
Addressed thus, he set out and went together with the maiden to the house;
falling at [her] feet, he petitioned: "O court lady, give me the maiden!"
39.115
Just then, by the king who had already sent word,
that insolent ascetic was seen falling at the courtesan's feet.
39.116
Bound in coarse ropes, he was subjected to humiliation at dawn;
wandering the earth, he died and was born into wombs of suffering.
39.117
Through the shedding of karma, he somehow attained human birth,
[yet] devoid of wealth, relatives, and kin, and his father went abroad.
39.118
When he was a youth, his mother too was carried off by Mlecchas;
becoming extremely distressed, he took refuge in the doctrine of the ascetics.
39.119
Having properly performed very severe, ignorant penance, when his lifespan was exhausted,
he was born as a god residing in the luminous world, named Analappaha.
39.120
The blessed Anantavīrya was asked by a disciple in the midst of the gods:
"In the dispensation of Munisuvrata, who else will become a kevalin?"
39.121
Then Anantabala said: "When I have attained nirvāṇa,
two people here, śramaṇas of composed mind, will become kevalins:
39.122
The first is Desabhūsaṇa, a lion among nirgrantha śramaṇas;
the second here is Kulabhūsaṇa, an omniscient one who delivers the world."
39.123
Analappaha too, hearing the words issued from the lotus-mouth of the kevalin,
meditated [on them] in his heart and returned to his own abode.
39.124
Then one day, knowing through clairvoyance that we had undertaken meditation here,
he said: "I will make false that word of Anantavīrya."
39.125
Hastening with pride, with deep-seated wrath from past enmity, he came here,
and having inflicted a very dreadful affliction, he departed for his own home.
39.126
Because of the tender care rendered by you, O Rāghava, accompanied by Nārāyaṇa,
through the destruction of karma, omniscience has arisen in us.
39.127
Hearing of this and other things, of the miseries in future lives caused by enmity,
abandon the act of enmity and always remain single-minded in dharma!"
39.128
Having thus heard the words of Desabhūsaṇa, those gods and humans,
fearful of the miseries of existence, became devoted to right view.
39.129
Meanwhile, the lord of the Garuḍas, bowing to the kevalins, said to Rāma,
casting a glance of affection: "Listen to my words:
39.130
Since with a pure mind you provided protection for my sons,
I will offer you whatever desired object you request in your heart."
39.131
After reflecting, Rāma said to the god: "If you are pleased, / then you must certainly remember us in times of calamity."
39.132
Then those four classes of gods, having bowed to the kevalins, / surrounded by their own retinues, all departed just as they had come.
39.133
Those who hear this deed of Deśabhūṣaṇa and Kulabhūṣaṇa with exceedingly pure mind, / they, the highest, bearing the yoke of dharma and capable, enjoy the pure fruit of intellect, free from rebirth.
39.134
Thus ends the thirty-ninth chapter, entitled "The Account of Deśabhūṣaṇa and Kulabhūṣaṇa", in the Paümacariya.
Linked texts (1)
- Paümacariya — Vimalasūri, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit