Part 5: Incarnation as Megharatha (continued)

When the two cocks had heard this, they reflected, “Alas! this worldly existence, being such, is worthless, the cause of pain. What did we as merchants acquire in a human birth, by which it would happen again, to say nothing of anything else? For human birth is hard to acquire. At that time people were deceived daily by us by various means like hunters greedy for a mouthful, alas! alas! After we had deceived people for a long time by false measures, weights, et cetera, not satisfied, we quarreled with each other. Reaching painful meditation, we died fighting each other; and we got the result of that in many animal-births.”

After these reflections, they bowed to the king and said in their own language, “Majesty, tell us. What now shall we do for the benefit of our souls?”

Knowing by clairvoyant knowledge, King Ghanaratha said, “Let Arhat, god, teacher, sādhu, religion, compassion for living things be yours.” The cocks agreed to what Ghanaratha said, fasted, and both died. After death they became powerful chiefs of the Bhūtas, named Tāmracūla and Svarṇacūla, in the forest Bhūtaratnā. Knowing their former birth from clairvoyant knowledge, they created an aerial car and went to Megharatha, their benefactor in a former birth. They bowed to Megharatha with devotion and said:

“We have become lords of the Vyantaras now by your favor. We became mortals, elephants, buffaloes, rams, and after that cocks, with a maximum life in these, by our own acts. In our life as cocks, we ate countless worms daily. What fate would we have attained, if you had not been a refuge, lord? Be gracious. Favor us. Get into the aerial car and look at the whole world, even though you already know it by (clairvoyant) knowledge.”

So urged by them, an ocean of the milk of courtesy, Megharatha got into the aerial car with his attendants. The car flew up and advanced according to wish; and they pointed out the things to be seen and instructed him.

“This is the crest of Mt. Meru, forty yojanas high, made of cat’s-eye, making the sky have shoots of dūrvā from its rays. These rocks, the shape of a half-moon, in each one of the directions, marked with a lion-throne, are pure from the water of the Arhats’ birth-baths. These are the lofty temples of the eternal Arhats and this is Pāṇḍaka with trees and flowers attaining their object in their worship. Those are the six mountain-ranges bounding the zones, their surface marked by the fourteen great rivers, and those are the six lakes on them. Those peaks are the Vaitāḍhyas, rich with the wealth of the Vidyādharas, resembling walls of stone as boundaries for the halves of their respective zones. Those are the eternal shrines on their peaks provided with statues of the holy eternal Arhats. This is the wall around Jambūdvīpa, circular in shape, the pleasure-ground of the Vidyādharas with its lofty lattice-windows.

This ocean is Ravaṇoda, the abode of a multitude of sea-monsters; and this is Dhātakīkhaṇḍadvīpa surrounded by Kāloda. These are two small Mt. Merus marked with the stones for the Arhats bath; and these are the two Iṣvākāra Mountains purified by the eternal Arhats. That is the half of Puṣkaradvīpa which resembles Dhātakīkhaṇḍa. This is the mountain Mānuṣottara. Beyond that there is no land for mortals.”

After they had pointed out the world with such explanations, they led Megharatha back to the city Puṇḍarīkiṇī. After they had left the prince in the palace, bowed respectfully, and made a rain of jewels, they went to their own dwelling.

Then one day Ghanaratha, though self-enlightened, was enlightened by the Lokāntika-gods who came and said, “Found a congregation.” After he had installed Megharatha as King and Dṛḍharatha as yuvarāj, and had given gifts for a year, Ghanaratha took initiation. When his omniscience had arisen, enlightening souls capable of emancipation, Tīrthaṅkara Ghanaratha wandered over the earth.