Part 17: Bharata’s grief

Immediately the Cakravartin, overcome by great grief, fell fainting on the ground, like a mountain struck by a thunderbolt. At that time even though great sorrow had come, no one knew how to cry—the means of relieving grief. To make known the way to relieve the Cakrin’s grief, Śakra himself cried with great sobs. After Saṅkrandana, the gods cried. For the conduct is the same of people who have the same grief. Hearing their crying, the Cakrin regained consciousness and cried loud enough to split the universe, as it were. The great knot of the King’s grief burst by that crying like a dike by the very great speed of a large river. Then, because of the repeated crying of gods, demons, and mortals, the emotion of compassion existed in the three worlds as if they were under one rule. Since that time, in this world producing sorrow for people, the arrow of sorrow has been removed by the method of crying.

Abandoning his inherent firmness, the Lord of Bharata spoke with grief, causing pain even to animals: “Oh, Father! Oh, brother of the world! Oh, ocean with water of compassion! Why have you abandoned us, ignorant, here in the forest of existence? How shall we live here in existence without you, shining with clear kevalajñāna, just as in darkness without a lamp? Why this silence of yours, like that of a chadmastha, O Supreme Lord? Deliver a sermon. Why do you not favor the people? But, surely you have gone to the abode of the siddhas since you do not speak, O Blessed One. Why do not my brothers, too, speak to me grieving? Oh, I know! They always followed the Master. There is no one else in my family, except me, who does not follow the Master. My father, the protector of the three worlds; my younger brothers, Bāhubali and others; my sisters Brāhmī and Sundarī; my sons, Puṇḍarīka, etc.; my grandsons, Śreyāṃsa and others, destroyed all the karma-enemies and went today to the abode of the siddhas. I, devoted to life, live.”

Seeing the Cakrin depressed by the fact that he was alive, because of his grief wishing to die, as it were, Pākaśāsana began to enlighten him: “O noble Lord of Bharata, our Master crossed and led others across the ocean of saṃsāra for so long a time. Other creatures belonging to saṃsāra will for a long time cross saṃsāra by means of the congregation founded by him, like a great river by a ford. For the Blessed One, after accomplishing his own purpose, devoted himself to helping other people accomplish their purpose, for a lac of pūrvas. When he has favored all the people, why then do you grieve for the Lord of the World who has attained that abode from which there is no return, O King? That man should be grieved for when he dies, who after death wanders many times in the lacs of birth-nuclei, sole abodes of great pain. So, are yon not ashamed grieving for the Lord like other people? It is fitting neither for the mourner nor the one mourned for. Any man who has heard even one of the Master’s sermons on dharma is overcome neither by grief nor joy. How much less should you be! O King, this wailing of yours is as unnatural as trembling of the great ocean, as shaking of Mt. Meru, as springing up of the earth, as dullness of the thunderbolt, as tastelessness of nectar, as heat of the moon. Be resolute, O King. Remember that you are the son of the Lord, the sole resolute one of the three worlds.”

Thus enlightened by Vṛddhaśravas like an elder of his family, the King regained his natural resoluteness, like water coolness.