Part 33: Founding of the tīrtha

Such a sermon was delivered by the Tīrthanātha benefiting all men, the moon for the delight of the nightblooming lotus of the Three Worlds. After hearing the Lord’s sermon, enlightened men and women took initiation, the sole mother of emancipation, by the thousands. At that time Sumitra, the father of Cakrin Sagara, who had been an ascetic in spirit before, took initiation under the Master.

Then the Lord told the ‘three steps,’ consisting of origination, perishing, and permanence, resembling a condensation^[1] of the grammar of all the scriptures, to the ninety-five wise ascetics, Siṃhasena and others, who had the nāmakarma of gaṇabhṛts. In conformity with the ‘three steps’ they made the twelve Aṅgas with the Pūrvas, like a picture in conformity with a line. Then Vāsava got up, brought a dish filled with powdered sandal, and stood, surrounded by a throng of gods, at the Master’s lotus-feet. Then the Lord of the World rose and, throwing the powder on the heads of the gaṇabhṛts in turn, he himself gave permission for exposition by text and interpretation and by both, by substances, qualities, modifications,^[2] and modes of expressing things,^[3] and permission for the gaṇas.^[4] The gods, men, and women threw a fragrant powder^[5] over the gaṇabhṛts, accompanied by the sound of the drum. The gaṇadharas stood with folded hands, desiring the Master’s speech like a stream of nectar. The Lord sat down again on the lion-throne, facing the east as before, and delivered a sermon composed of instruction to them. Just then the first division of the day ended, and the Blessed One completed his sermon on dharma.

The oblation

Then, placed in a large dish, measuring four prastha,^[6] made of pure rice possessing the fragrance of lotuses, its sweet scent multiplied by handfuls of perfume by the gods, ordered made by King Sagara, carried by men of first rank, the whole sky echoing with the loud sound of the drum of the gods, accompanied by women singing auspicious songs, surrounded on all sides by the citizens like a lotus-bud by bees, the oblation entered the samavasaraṇa by way of the east door. After the oblation had circumambulated the Lord of the Three Worlds, they threw it up before (him), like a shower of divine flowers. As it was falling from the sky, the gods took half of it, Sagara took half of what reached the ground, and the rest of the people the remainder. From the power of the oblation diseases which had existed disappear and new ones do not appear for a period of six months.

Then the Lord of the World, the leader on the road to nirvāṇa, arose from the lion-throne and left by way of the north door. Then the God of gods rested on the dais placed between the middle and upper walls in the northeast quarter.

Then the head of the gaṇadharas, Siṃhasena, placed on a lion-throne brought by Sagara, delivered a sermon. The chief of the gaṇabhṛts, from the power of the Master’s place, described innumerable births and whatever anyone asked. The people in the Master’s assembly also knew the removal of doubt without the Kevalin, and did not think “He (the gaṇabhṛt) is (only) an ordinary ascetic.” Removal of the teacher’s fatigue, reliance on each other, and the step from pupil to teacher are the qualities of the gaṇabhṛt’s sermon. When the second division of the day was completed, the head of the gaṇabhṛts teased from preaching, like a traveler from moving.

When he had stopped preaching, all the gods bowed to the Supreme Lord and went each to his own place. They went to Nandīśvara to the mountains, Añjana, etc., and made an eight-day festival to the eternal images of the Arhats. Saying, “May we have such a procession again and again,” the gods went to their own abodes as they had come. After paying homage to the Blessed One, Cakravartin Sagara went to the city Sāketa, a place for a rendezvous with Śrī.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Pratyāhāra, a grammatical term.

[2]:

See I, n. 272.

[3]:

See I, n. 273.

[4]:

See I, n. 123.

[5]:

See I, n. 274.

[6]:

See I, n. 273.