Part 4: Birth of Dharmanātha

At that time Dṛḍharatha’s soul, living in Vaijayanta, immersed in pleasure, completed its maximum life-period. The soul fell on the seventh day of the bright half of Rādha, the moon being in Puṣpa, and entered Lady Suvratā’s womb. Then Suvratā saw the fourteen great dreams, elephant, et cetera, indicating the birth of a Tīrthakara. On the third day of the bright half of Māgha, in the constellation Puṣpa, Queen Suvratā bore a son marked with a thunderbolt, gold color, at the right time.

The fifty-six Dikkumārīs, Bhogaṅkarā, et cetera, came and performed the birth-rites for the Master and the Master’s mother. Then the Indra of Saudharma (Śakra) got into Pālaka, came, took the Master, and conducted him to Meru’s peak. Hari sat down on the jeweled lion-throne on Atipāṇḍukambalā, holding the Tīrthakṛt on the lion-throne of his lap. Then the sixty-three Indras, beginning with Acyuta, made the Lord’s bath in the prescribed fashion with pure water from the holy places.

Vajrabhṛt placed the Lord on Īśāna’s lap, bathed him, anointed him, worshipped him, and began a hymn of praise as follows:

Stuti:

“Reverence to you, the fifteenth Arhat, Supreme Lord, having a form deserving deepest meditation,^[1] absorbed in deepest meditation. I consider mortals more important than gods and demons, since you, who are entitled to homage in the three worlds, have appeared as leader of the congregation. Let me be a mortal now in this southern Bharatavarṣa, as I wish to become your disciple, which is very effective for winning emancipation. What difference is there between hell-inhabitants and gods though happy to whom, negligent, there is no sight of you? As long as you, like the sun, did not rise, Lord of the Three Worlds, for just so long the heretics, like owls, prospered. Soon the whole half of Bharata will be filled by the water of your teaching of dharma, like a pond by that of a rain-cloud. O Supreme Lord, by making infinite people attain emancipation, you will make worldly existence uninhabited, like a king depopulating an enemy’s territory. O Blessed One, even in heaven may my days pass with my mind clinging like a bee to your lotus-feet.”

After this hymn of praise, Śakra received the Master from the Vāsava of Īśāna, took him, and deposited him at Queen Suvratā’s side according to custom.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See I, n. 409.