Part 11: Sambhava’s fast-breaking

On the next day in the same city the Lord went to the house of King Surendradatta with the intention of breaking his fast. He (Surendradatta) arose, bowed to the Lord of the World with devotion, took up a rice-pudding and said, “Please take it.” The Lord accepted the ricepudding free from faults, acceptable, free from life, in his hand-vessel, the only vessel for everything.^[1] The Lord, his mind not greedy for delicacies broke his fast just sufficiently to maintain life, the cause of good fortune to the giver. Then there was the sound of a drum, like the trumpeting of a sky-elephant; a divine stream of treasure fell from the sky, like a broken necklace; a rain of flowers fell from the sky, like the wealth of Nandana; there was a shower of fragrant rain, resembling the ichor of a sky-elephant. The gods waved their garments as if they were held by one cord, and a voice said, “Oh, the gift! Oh, the gift! The good gift!” Surendradatta made immediately a platform of gold and gems at the place where the Lord had broken his fast, and worshipped the platform at dawn, noon, and sunset as if it were the Lord’s feet. He took no food at all until he had made the pūjā.