596 MANICHAEAN LITERATURE
and for them I was sent into the world.
Take me now into the peace of salvation
where I will no longer glance at the figures of enemies,
nor hear the voice of tyrants.
For the time of this birth,
unlike my earlier ones,
affords me the garland of victory.THE EARTH TREMBLES AS HE ENTERS NIRVANA
On the fourth of the month of Shahrevar, on Monday at the eleventh hour,
when he had prayed, Mani shed the wonted garment of the body.Like the swift lightning he gleamed
brighter than the light of the sun, the chariot glittered,
and the messengers spoke and greeted the just god.
The sides of the house of the sky broke.
The earth trembled. A mighty voice was heard,
and people who saw this sign were confused
and fell on their faces.^8
It was a day of pain and a time of sorrow
when the messenger of light entered death,
when he entered the complete nirvana.^9COMMANDS FROM THE CHARIOT OF WATER
He left behind the leaders guarding the church. Mani the noble prince has ful-
filled his promise, telling us,For you I shall wait above in the chariot of water,
on the moon, my resting place until the world is saved,
and always send down help to you.- This description finds parallels in the apocalyptic signs accompanying the death of Jesus in
the New Testament gospels, especially Matthew, and in accounts of transfigurations and heav-
enly ascents in 1 Enoch and other Jewish and Christian literature. - This is parinirvana, the Buddhist realm of death and liberation. Here is one of many authen-
ticating references proving the centrality of Buddhism in Mani's formulation of gnosticism.