1202124a bhagavan pUrvabhAryaiSA kathamM me kathyatAm iti “Tell me, reverend sir, how was she my wife before?”
1202124c tato jagAda sa munizH zrUyatAM yadi kautukam Then the hermit said: “Listen, if you feel curious on the point.
1202125a babhUva dharmasenAkhyas tAmraliptyAmM purA vaNik 163bb. The Adventures of Puṣkarākṣa and Vinayavatī in a Former Life There was in old time a merchant in Tāmraliptī, named Dharmasena,
1202125c vidyullekheti nAmnA ca bhAryA tasyAbhavac chubhA and he had a beautiful wife named Vidyullekhā.
1202126a sa daivAn muSitaz cauraizH zastraiz cAbhyAhato vaNik As it happened he was robbed by bandits and wounded with weapons by them,
1202126c mumUrSur niragAd vahnimM praveSTumM bhAryayA saha and longing for death, he went out with his wife to enter the fire.
1202127a apazyatAm akasmAc ca tAv ubhAv api damMpatI
1202127c AkAzenAgataM haMsamithunaM rucirAkRti And the two saw suddenly a beautiful couple of swans coming through the air.
1202128a tatas tadgatacittau tau pravizya dahanamM mRtau Then they entered the fire, and died with their minds fixed on those swans,
1202128c rAjahaMsau samutpannau punar bhAryApatI ubhau and so the husband and wife were born in the next birth as swans.
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1202157a itthanM te pUrvabhAryAsAv ity ukto vijitAsunA Thus Vinayavatī was your wife in a former birth.”
1202157c muninA puSkarAkSasH sa rAjA tamM punar abravIt When the hermit Vijitāsu said this to Puṣkarākṣa, the king asked him another question:
1202158c pakSiyonAv abhUj janma bhagavan phalam AvayoH “How comes it, hermit, that the entering the fire, which atones for a multitude of sins, produced in our case the fruit of birth in the nature of a bird?”
1202159a ity uktavantaM rAjAnanM taM sa pratyabravIn muniH Thereupon the hermit replied:
1202159c yadbhAvitAtmA mriyate jantus tad rUpam aznute “A creature receives the form of that which it was contemplating at the moment of death.
