Part 23: Bharata’s omniscience

One day, when he had taken his bath and had made the oblation to all creatures, when his body had been rubbed with a very fine cloth and his hair garlanded, his body anointed with gośīrṣa-sandal, wearing priceless divine jeweled-ornaments on his body, attended by courtesans, the way being shown by the door-keeper, he went to the apartment made of mirrors of jewels in the women’s quarters. In it, clear as the atmospheric crystal,^[1] he saw his whole figure, life-size, reflected. While the Lord of Bharata was looking at his body in it, a ring fell from one finger. The King did not know the ring had fallen from his finger, like a single feather falling from a peacock’s tail. As he looked over his body gradually, the Cakrin saw the finger without the ring like a digit of the moon by day without moonlight. “What’s this! Why is this finger lacking in beauty?” Then the King saw the ring fallen on the ground. Wondering “Are other parts of the body devoid of beauty, if they have no ornaments?” he began to take off other ornaments.

First, the King removed his jeweled diadem and saw his head without it looking, like a ring whose jewels have fallen out. He took off his jeweled earrings and saw his poor ears, deprived of them, like the east and west quarters without the sun and moon. He removed the necklace, and saw his neck, deprived of it, without beauty like a river without water. He took off his pearl chain, and saw at once his breast without it like the sky with the stars gone. He removed his armlets, and saw his arms without them like śāl trees^[2] with half their creepers untwined. He abandoned bracelets and saw his wrists without them like a temple whose top is without the āmalasāraka.^[3] He took off other rings and saw his fingers without them like serpent-hoods whose jewels have been destroyed. He gave up his anklets and saw his feet, bereft of them, like a royal-elephant’s tusks whose golden rings have fallen off. So the ornaments being gradually removed from his body, seeing himself without beauty like a tree whose leaves have perished, Bharata reflected: “Alas! beauty of the body must be gained by ornaments, etc., like that of a wall by paintings, etc. This body, polluted inside and out by impurities, should not be considered to have any beauty. This body actually corrupts camphor, musk, etc., like salt-ground the water of the ocean. The people who, disgusted with objects of the senses, practice penance which has mokṣa as its fruit, they alone knowing the truths acquire their fruit.”

As he was reflecting rightly in this way, having ascended the kṣapakaśreṇi from the apūrvakaraṇa step and having attained pure meditation, omniscience became manifest from the destruction of the destructive karmas, like the light of the sun from the removal of a mass of clouds. Just then a trembling of Indra’s throne suddenly took place. For even unconscious matter announces to the great the success of the great. Indra went to him with devotion, for the devoted pay homage to the Master’s son like the Master. How much more when his omniscience has become manifest.

Śakra said: “O kevalin, adopt the dress of an ascetic in order that I may pay homage and arrange for you the festival of departure (to take initiation). Then like Bāhubali, the Lord of Bharata pulled out his hair in five handfuls—a characteristic of becoming a mendicant. Then Bharata took the paraphernalia, broom, etc., as soon as it was brought by a divinity near at hand. Then the Lord of Bharata was worshipped by the Lord of gods. For one who has attained omniscience is not worshipped before initiation. Ten thousand kings became mendicants following the son of Ṛṣabha. For service to such a master in another world also gives pleasure.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Either moonstone or sunstone. See Bloomfield, p. 57, n. 27.

[2]:

The śāl tree is ordinarily covered with a thick growth of creepers.

[3]:

Āmalasāraka is apparently the same as āmala, which is the “large, fluted, circular block” at the base of the finial on a temple or stūpa. It occurs in the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra, 59.33, 35, 56 and also in Kumārapālapratibodha, p. 144. For āmala, see Acharya, Indian Architecture, p. 179.