________________
PREVIOUS BIRTHS
Angered, he struck a wood-apple tree with his fist and, pointing to the ground covered with its fallen fruit, said to the gate-keeper:
“ I would make all their heads fall too, like that, if I did not have great devotion to my elder father. 17 Enough for me of pleasures beginning with such deceit.” So saying, he went to Muni Sambhuti's feet and took the vow.
When the king heard that he had become an ascetic, he went with his younger brother, bowed, asked for forgiveness, and begged him for the sake of the kingdom. The king ascertained that Viśvabhūti was unwilling (to go back ) and went home. But he ( Viśvabhūti ) then wandered elsewhere with his guru.
One day, wandering alone by permission of his guru, emaciated by penance, he went to the city Mathurā. At that time Viśākhanandin went to marry the king of Mathurā's daughter. Viśvabhūti entered the city at the end of the month to break his fast and went to the vicinity of Viśākhanandin's camp. Men pointed him out, saying, “ There is Prince Viśvabhūti," and Viśākhanandin was at once enraged with him, like an enemy, on sight of him. Just then Viśvabhūti fell, „knocked over by a cow. He (Viśākhanandin ) laughed, saying, “Where is your strength that makes wood-apples fall? ” Viśvabhūti seized the cow by the horns and whirled it around angrily. He made the nidāna, 18 “May I have great strength for killing him in another birth as a result of this severe penance."
Incarnation as god ( 107 )
Viśvabhūti completed his life of a crore of years and, dying without confessing that (the nidāna ), became a god with a maximum life-term in Mahāśukra.
17 97. I.e. his uncle.
18 106. A nidāna is a wish for a reward for penance. It is often made to injure some one in a future birth. 2M
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
