Part 1: Incarnation as Vipulavāhana (introduction)

In the zone Airāvata in the continent Dhātakīkhaṇḍa, there is a celebrated city, named Kṣemapurī, the abode of happiness (kṣema). In this city there was a king, named Vipulavāhana, endowed with great understanding, like Meghavāhana (Indra) come to earth. He guarded duly his subjects unceasingly, destroying all pains, like a gardener guarding his garden, destroying all thorns. His stream of policy flowed unceasingly, refreshing the people just as if they were travelers. Maintaining an insuperable rule, devoted to the law, he did not allow the least transgression by himself as well as others. He employed the fourth stratagem^[1] against the guilty in proportion to the crime, hke a physician dispensing treatment to the sick with regard to the disease. He showed favor to the virtuous in accordance with their virtue. Verily, the fruit of discrimination on the part of the discerning is suitable subsistence. Things that were sources of pride^[2] in other people did not cause pride in him. The rainy season does not increase the size of the ocean like that of a river.

The All-knowing was always in his mind, like a god in a temple; praise of the qualities of the All-knowing was always in his speech as well as in the scriptures. He bent his head to gods, Tīrthaṅkaras, teachers, and to good sādhus; every one else bowed to him. By freedom from painful and evil meditation,^[3] by study of the scriptures, by worship of the Jinas, he attained the highest fruit of mind, speech, body. In him the twelve-fold layman’s dharma^[4] was always very firm, like indigo-dye in cloth. Just as he, noble-minded, was watchful over the twelvefold circle of kings,^[5] so he was watchful over layman’s dharma. Pure-minded, he sowed money, the seeds of the tree of dharma, constantly in the seven fields,^[6] as was suitable. A petitioner never went away empty-handed from him, the sole refuge of the poor and lordless, alone compassionate like a cloud from the ocean. He rained wealth on beggars, like a cloud water; only he, free from egotism, did not thunder at all. While he, an axe for the destruction of thorns, a kalpa-tree of gifts, was ruling the earth, no one was miserable.

Description of a famine

At one time, while he was king, there was a terrible famine. Fate is hard to overcome. From the failure of the heavens to turn black and from the lack of clouds the rainy season proved to be as cruel as another hot season. The southwest winds blew like the winds at the end of the world, drying up all the water, raging in uprooting the trees. The clouds in the sky were like crows’ bellies. The sun appeared to have brilliance equal to that of a cymbal.^[7] People in. both the country and towns became like ascetics, eating the bark of trees, bulbs, roots, and fruit, from lack of grain. They were not satisfied even when much food had been taken somehow, like people with morbid appetites. Ashamed of begging, the people generally began to wear a sham ascetic-garb in order to obtain alms.

Fathers, mothers, children abandoned each other and wandered here and there, as if they had lost the way, with the hope of eating. When food, etc., had been received in some way, a father did not give it to his son, though he saw him crying from starvation. A mother, wandering in the streets sells her own wretched child for a handful of chick-peas, like an outcaste selling a winnowing-basket, etc. At dawn the destitute people, like hungry house-doves, picked up seeds that had fallen in the courts of the rich men’s houses. Again and again in the shops of the bakers, etc., people stole food by trickery, like dogs.^[8] Men considered it a blessing when they obtained just a trifle of food by some means or other at the end of the day, after they had wandered about all day. Even the highways of the city were worse than a cemetery from the wretched men who had fallen, who resembled skeletons, terrible-looking. People’s ears were pierced by unceasing wails, that were like needles thrown into their ears, which poured forth at every step.

When the noble-minded king saw the fourfold congregation suffering in this famine which was like the end of the world, he thought: “I must protect the earth, all of it. But what am I to do? This evil season is not subject to weapons. Nevertheless, the whole congregation must be protected at all events, since the duty of the great is the assistance of worthy persons, first of all.”

After these reflections, the King instructed his cooks: “Listen! Henceforth, I shall eat what is left after the congregation has eaten. The food, etc. that has been prepared for me must be given in future to the ascetics.^[9] The laymen must be fed with separately prepared porridge.”

The chief-cooks replied, “Very well,” to the King’s order and carried it out all the time. The King himself saw to it.

Rice that resembled lotuses with its fragrance to be absorbed by the nose; green gram bigger than grains of black gram;^[10] bowls of liquid; various sauces abundant and thick like the waters of Ghṛtoda,^[11] friends of nectar as it were; flour-cakes^[12] mixed with candied sugar; delightful sweetmeats; fruit with pleasant flavor; pastries^[13] adorned with candied sugar; very tender marmarāla;^[14] delicate cakes fried in oil and butter; a savory sauce; smooth curdled milk; boiled milk; and curds with sugar and spices which destroyed hunger—these were prepared for the laymen’s meals, like meals for the King.

The noble-minded king himself gave food which was free from faults, acceptable, pure to the great munis. Thus throughout the entire famine the King gave food, etc., in a fitting manner, to the entire congregation. By performing service and showing attention to the whole congregation the King acquired the body-making karma of a Tīrthaṅkara.

One day he was seated on the palace-roof, and he saw a cloud raised in the sky like an umbrella for the earth. It filled the sky completely like a robe made of indigo-color cloth with an ornament of forked lightning for the sky. In the meantime a violent wind arose, shaking trees from their roots as well as all the Pātāla-vessels. By this great wind the great cloud was lifted and led hither and thither, like the fluff of the arka. In a moment the cloud became visible, and in a moment it disappeared. As he observed that, the wise king thought:

“Just as that cloud appeared and disappeared while people looked on, everything else in worldly existence is known to be like it. Just so, whether one who of his own accord is talking, singing, dancing, laughing, gambling, meditating on various means of acquiring wealth, walking, standing, lying down, seated in a conveyance, angry or playing, at home or outside, is suddenly bitten by a serpent appointed by fate, is killed by a sharp stroke of lightning that has fallen, or is crashed by a ratting elephant with its tusks, or is injured by the breaking of an old wall, etc. that has fallen down, or is devoured by a tiger lean-bellied from hunger, or is attacked by a disease causing a change for the worse and difficult to cure, or is struck down suddenly by a wild horse or something like that, or is killed by an enemy, thief, etc. with a dagger, etc., or is burned by the blazing fire of a lamp, or is swept away by the velocity of a river-flood from heavy rain, etc., or has his body penetrated by an acute affection of the windy humor, or he is embraced by the phlegmatic humor which has dried up the heat of the whole body, or torn by a violent bilious-attack, or is suddenly overcome by a coughing-fit, or is consumed by a skin-disease, or is seized by consumption, or is troubled by an attack of indigestion, or is occupied by a miserable tumor called ‘arbuda,’ or stupefied by diarrhoea, or seized by constipation, or obstructed by an abscess, or tormented by the scrotum, or filled with asthma, or destroyed by gouty pain, a man always attains death by numerous diseases such as these or others near at hand like messengers of Kṛtānta.

Nevertheless, considering himself immortal, a man, stupid as an animal, does not set out to take the fruit of the tree of a life-time. ‘Oh! I have poor brothers; I have young sons now; this daughter is unmarried; this boy must be educated; my wife is newly married; my parents are old; my father- and mother-in-law are unfortunate; my sister is widowed.’ Thinking that these people must be protected forever, a stupid man does not know that the ocean of existence is hke a stone tied to the heart.

‘I was not delighted today by the happiness of embracing my beloved’s body; I did not smell the pudding; my desire for a wreath was not fulfilled; the wish for the sight of pleasing objects was not satisfied; I am not at all pleased with the songs of the lute, flute, etc.; the storehouse was not filled today for the household; the old house that I tore down was not renewed; I did not undertake the final training of the horses that had come; these fast bullocks were not driven to the best chariot.’

So the foolish suffers remorse even at death. Never in the least does he regret, ‘I did not practice dharma.’ Here death is always ready; there are various sudden deaths; diseases are here; and many anxieties there. On the one hand are love, hate, etc., enemies always ready; on the other are strong passions causing death like battles. There is nothing at all that conduces to happiness in this saṃsāra which is like a desert. A man, alas! does not become disgusted with existence, thinking, ‘I am living in a comfortable place.’ Death, the sudden destroyer of life, quickly falls upon the one bewildered by the fallacy of pleasure, like a night-attack upon a sleeper. Verily, the practice of dharma is the fruit of the perishable body, just like the eating of prepared food. The acquisition of an imperishable state by the perishable body, though easy to do, is not done by bewildered people, alas! So today I shall undertake without hesitation to buy the wealth of nirvāṇa with this body, and shall bestow the kingdom on my son.”

After these reflections, eagerly the King had the doorkeeper call his son, Vimalakīrti, dear to fame. His hands folded submissively, the prince bowed with extreme devotion to the feet of his father as if he were a powerful divinity, and spoke as follows:

“Please favor me with an important command. Do not be anxious at the thought, ‘My son is a child.’ Of what enemy-king shall I seize the land today? What mountain-king together with his mountain shall I subdue? What enemy living in a fortress on water together with the water shall I destroy? Any one else who is a thorn in your flesh, I shall quickly remove. Though a boy, I am your son, able to subdue what is difficult to subdue. This power belongs to my father alone. I do not consider myself a soldier.”

The King replied: “There is no king hostile to me. No mountain-king crosses my speech; no lord of an island transgresses my command, for whose conquest I send you forth, O long-armed son. But, living in earthly existence is the only thing that constantly torments me. Therefore, take the burden of the world, ornament of the family, fitted to bear burdens. Take this kingdom in turn, as I took it, that I may take initiation at once and give up living in worldly existence. Recalling the command of the elder which must not be transgressed and your own promise made just now, son, you can act only with devotion, not otherwise.”

The prince thought, “Alas! I am deprived of an answer by my father giving a command and recalling my promise.” After this reflection, the King took the prince by his own hand and installed him on the throne with a great coronation-festival.

The King, after his initiation-bath had been performed by Vimalakīrti, seated in a palanquin, went to Sūri Svayamprabha. Under the best of ācāryas, the best of kings adopted mendicancy together with rejection of all that is censurable. Seated in the chariot of restraint,^[15] he guarded fittingly his mendicancy like a kingdom from conquest by internal enemies. By means of the twenty sthānakas^[16] and other sthānakas also, he increased his own karma named ‘tīrthakṛtnāma.’^[17] Not depressed by attacks, rejoiced by trials, he passed his life, like a watchman his watch. After death from fasting he attained the heaven Ānata. Such is a small thing from initiation producing nirvāṇa as a fruit.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

I.e., assault.

[2]:

See I, n. 391.

[3]:

See I, n. 8.

[4]:

See I, pp. 207 f.

[5]:

See I, n. 208.

[6]:

Statues of the Jinas, shrines of the Jinas, Jain Scriptures, and the fourfold congregation. Rājendra, s.v. sattakhettī.

[7]:

I.e., it is made of white metal.

[8]:

I believe there is an error here in the text. The MSS have labdhā⁰ instead of labdhvā⁰, but the rest of the compound seems the same. It would be desirable for the comparison to have a word for an animal or something that dogs would tear apart after they had caught it. But I can make nothing of the kind out of the MSS.

[9]:

Ascetics cannot accept food especially prepared for them. In I, p. 341 (1.6.202) ‘rājapiṇḍa’ is not acceptable, even though not prepared for the ascetics. Muni Jayantavijayaji informs me that the prohibition against ‘rājapiṇḍa’ existed for the followers of the first and last Tīrthaṅkaras, but not of the intermediate ones.

[10]:

Māṣa (uṛad) has large black seeds.

[11]:

See above, p. 123.

[12]:

Maṇḍaka. The editor of the text takes this to be the Guj. māṇḍā, ‘a large thin cake made of millet and wheat flour’ (Shah); ‘sweetmeat balls’ (Mehta).

[13]:

Maṇḍikā (?). Said by the editor to be the Guj. khājā, ‘pie-crust’ (Shah khājuṃ). MW quotes maṇḍīkā merely as fem. of maṇḍaka, with no distinction in meaning.

[14]:

Marmarāla is the same as parpaṭa (Śeṣa to Abhi. 3. 64). MW defines parpaṭa, ‘a kind of thin cake made of rice or pease-meal and baked in grease.’ It is the Guj. pāpaḍa, ‘a thin crisp cake made of kidney-bean flour mixed with spices’ (Mehta).

[15]:

Illustrated in the Śrī Śīlāṅgādi Rathasaṅgraha.

[16]:

See I, pp. 80 ff.

[17]:

See I, p. 408.