Part 5: Ara’s life before initiation

After this hymn of praise, the Vāsava of Saudharma took the Lord, went to Ibhapura (Hastināpura), and put him at Queen Devī’s side. King Sudarśana celebrated his son’s ‘birth-festival and named him Ara because Devī had seen a spoke of a wheel (ara) in a dream. Allowed to play with playthings by goddesses who were in the form of nurses and gods who had become friends, the Lord gradually grew up. At the proper time, Aranātha, thirty bows tall, married princesses, because of respect for his father’s command. When twenty-one thousand years had passed since his birth, the Supreme Lord took the burden of the kingdom at his father’s command.

When the same amount of time had passed with the Lord as king, the cakra-jewel which moves in the air appeared in the armory. Following the cakra with the thirtéen other jewels, Lord Ara conquered Bharata in four hundred years.