Part 20: Dharmanātha’s samavasaraṇa

Always attended by them, wandering over the earth, one day the Lord approached the city Aśvapura. At once the gods, Śakra, et cetera, made a samavasaraṇa with an aśoka five hundred and forty bows tall. The Lord entered there, circumambulated the caitya-tree, bowed to the congregation, and sat down on the eastern lion-throne. Then the Vyantaras made such images of the Lord placed on jeweled lion-thrones in the three other directions. The congregation entered and remained in their proper places in the Master’s assembly, the animals within the middle wall, the draft-animals within the third.

Agents, wide-eyed, went quickly to Puruṣasiṃha and informed him that the Master was in the samavasaraṇa. He bestowed twelve and a half crores of silver on them and went to the samavasaraṇa, accompanied by Sudarśana. After circumambulating the Lord and bowing with devotion, Adhokṣaja sat down with his elder brother behind Sahasrākṣa.

Bowing again to the Master, Śakra, Śārṅgin, and Sudarśana, insatiable in devotion to the Master, joyfully praised him as follows:

Stuti:

“Be victorious, moon for the delight of the cakora of the eye of the world, sun to the darkness of wrong belief, Dharmanātha, Lord of the World. For a long time you wandered as an ordinary ascetic. Nevertheless you are free from error. Possessing infinite belief, you destroy other beliefs. The impurity of karma of creatures whose souls are completely bathed by the water of your sermons departs instantly. Neither from the shade from clouds nor from the shade from trees does heat subside as at your feet, O Lord. People here whose bodies have streams of light from the sight of you look like carved puppets. Though separately hostile, the three worlds have met here in one place after a long time, having become brothers from your power, Brother of the World. Supreme Lord, protect us who have no other protector, divinity of the original sanctuary of three-part Bharatakṣetra. Again and again, O Lord of the World, we ask you for this—may our minds become bees for your lotus-feet.”