Part 6: Ananta’s initiation

When he had directed the earth for fifteen lacs of years, the sou of Siṃhasena carried the thought of initiation in his mind. The Laukāntika-gods, Sārasyatas, et cetera, from Brahmaloka, said to the Supreme Lord, “Found a congregation.” The Lord gave gifts for a year with money supplied by the Jṛmbhaka-gods sent by Kubera at Jṛmbhabhid’s command. At the end of the giving, gods, asuras, and kings held the initiation-ceremony of the Lord who wished the end of births. Then the Lord of the World put on various decorations, garments, and wreaths, and got into the best palanquin named Sāgaradattā. His umbrella, chauris, and fan being carried by Śakra, et cetera, the Lord went to the garden Sahasrāmravaṇa in the palanquin.

The Lord of the World, eager, entered the grove, like the mind of the world, which was filled repeatedly by women from the city occupied with swinging in swings, like Khecarīs coming and going at that time; which was covered with aśokas reddish with new blossoms, with hair in the form of agitated bees, moving to and fro as if drunk with wine; charming with mango-trees which removed the wealth of fatigue from townswomen fatigued by play, carrying fans, as it were, in the form of erect shoots; beautiful with karṇikāras like earrings of the approaching Śrī of Spring, with mountain-ebony trees^[1] like golden tilakas; with ‘welcome’ pronounced, as it were, by the cuckoos calling down.

Then, supported on his arm by Biḍaujas, the Lord descended from Sāgaradattā and removed ornaments, et cetera. On the fourteenth day of the black half of Rādha, in Revatī, in the afternoon, observing a two-day fast, the Master adopted mendicancy with a thousand kings. After paying homage to the Master, all the gods, Puruhūta, et cetera, went at once to their respective abodes, like persons who had finished their tasks. On the next day the fourteenth Arhat broke his fast with rice-pudding in the house of Vijaya in Vardhamānapura. The five divine things, the rain of treasure, et cetera, were made there by the gods, and Vijaya made a jeweled platform over the Lord’s footprints. The Supreme Lord, an ordinary ascetic (chadmastha), though free from deceit (apacchadma), set out to wander from that place, enduring trials.