Part 8: Śānti’s initiation

The Master gave gifts for a year, the money being supplied by the Jṛmbhakas. The Lord of the World settled the kingdom on his son Cakrāyudha, who resembled himself, wishing to acquire the sovereignty of self-control, himself. The ceremony of the Lord’s initiation, as for his coronation as cakrin, was held by the gods, the Indras, et cetera, and by kings, Cakrāyudha, et cetera. The Lord of the World got into the palanquin, named Sarvārthā, provided with a lion-throne. Men carried it first. Then gods carried it on the east side, asuras on the south, Sauparṇeyas on the west, and Nāgas on the north.

The Lord, the son of Acirā, went to Sahasrāmravaṇa, which dyed red the sky with trumpet-flowers^[1] like twilight-clouds; adorned with śirīṣas^[2] horripilated, as it were, from union with the Śrī of the hot season; filled with jasmines like drops of perspiration; marked with the golden pods of the screw-pine, like bows of Smara; distinguished by dhātakīs^[3] with rows of buzzing bees excited by fresh buds, like singers of the Lakṣmī of the hot season; laughing, as it were, at the infirm Śrī of Madhu^[4] with date-palms with a wealth of blossoms resembling the breasts of the Śrī of the forest; made twofold by the unbroken rows of the tails of parrots excited by the fruit of the bean; charming with a wealth of petals of the swallow-wort; with townspeople engaged in the pleasure of water-sports in the tank.

Then the Lord of the World descended from the palanquin and discarded his jewels, ornaments, wreaths, et cetera, as well as the kingdom. In the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the dark half of Jyeṣṭha, (the moon) being in Bharaṇī, after fasting for two days and making the namaskāra to the Siddhas, the Lord and a thousand kings adopted mendicancy. Just then he attained mind-reading knowledge. On the next day the Lord broke his fast with rice-pudding in King Sumitra’s house in Mandirapura. The gods made the five things, rain of treasure, et cetera, on him; and Sumitra in turn made a jeweled platform over the Master’s footprints. Never sitting, never lying, disinterested, free from worldly connections, the receptacle of the mūla- and uttaraguṇas, the Lord wandered over the earth.