Shatrughna's Past Lives and His Love for Mathura

King Shrenika asks Gautama why Shatrughna longed for Mathura above Ayodhya and the many heaven-like capitals he could have had. Gautama, an ocean of knowledge, answers that Shatrughna was born in Mathura in many lives and so loves Madhupuri (Mathura) above all, for the soul, bound by karma, wanders the ocean of samsara (the cycle of rebirth) from beginningless time and takes endless births.

After countless births Shatrughna's soul was born in Mathura as a man named Yamanadeva, a great sinner who turned his back on dharma. After death he passed through births as a pig, a donkey, a crow and others, then became a goat that died burning in a fire, then a buffalo that carried loads of water, dying six times as a buffalo, and was then reborn as a poor man of low family.

Gautama explains that great sinners go to hell, the meritorious become gods in heaven, and a mixture of merit and sin brings human birth. The soul was next born as Kuladhara, a handsome brahmin without virtue; while the king of his city was away on a campaign of conquest, Queen Lalita saw him from a palace window, became infatuated and called him into the palace.

As the queen and the brahmin sat on one seat, the king came home unexpectedly and saw him there; the queen deceitfully claimed he was only a beggar, but the king did not believe her, and his servants led the brahmin outside the city to be killed. A sadhu (holy man) named Kalyana offered to free him if he would become a muni (monk); he agreed, was released, practised austerities and became a god, lord of the Riju vimana (celestial abode) in heaven.

In Mathura reigned King Chandrabhadra, whose queen Dhara had three brothers, Suryadeva, Agnideva and Yamunadeva, and eight sons: Shrimukha, Sumukha, Samamukha, Indramukha, Pramukha, Ugramukha, Arkamukha and Paramukha. Falling from heaven, the soul of the brahmin Kuladhara was born to the king's second queen Kanakaprabha as a son named Achala, skilled in the arts, virtuous and handsome, who played like a young god.

Meanwhile a man named Anka, for having rejoiced in dharma, was reborn in Shravasti as Apa, son of Kampa and his wife Angika, but he grew so rude and ignorant that his father drove him from home and he wandered about in misery. In Mathura, Achala was his father's favourite, so his stepmother Dhara plotted with her three brothers and eight sons to kill him in secret, and when Achala's mother learned of it she sent him away from home.

In the Tilaka forest a thorn pierced Achala's foot, and Apa, passing by with a load of wood, set it down, gently drew the thorn out with a needle and showed it to him. Delighted, the prince told him to remember the name Achalakumara and to come to him when he heard that Achala had become king, and sent him on his way.

Reaching Kaushambi, Achala defeated the mighty master of archery there and won such renown that the king called him into the city and married him to his daughter Indradatta, and by the power of his merit he gained a kingdom. After conquering Anga and other lands he marched on Mathura with a great army; the vassals, hearing that he was Chandrabhadra's son, all came over to him, Dhara's brothers sent to make terms fled in fear at the sight of him, her eight sons fled too, and his mother brought him to his father, who gave him the kingdom.

One day, as King Achala watched a dance by actors, Apa arrived and the doorkeeper pushed him out; the king stopped this, called Apa to his side, showed him great favour and gave him Shravasti, the city of his birth, and from then on the two friends stayed together. Seeing the acharya (preceptor) Yashasamudra in a garden, both became munis, kept supreme restraint with right faith, died in samadhi (meditative death) and became exalted gods in heaven.

Falling from heaven, Achala's soul was born as Shatrughna, son of King Dasharatha, and the bond of many lives is why he loves Mathura so; Gautama observes that even one who sits in a tree's shade grows fond of the tree, let alone a place where one has lived countless lives. Apa's soul became the general Kritantavaktra, and the chapter teaches that the stains of many lives are washed not at sacred bathing places but by dharma, and that hearing dharma without caring for one's own welfare is as useless as eyes to a man who falls into a pit in broad daylight.