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32. THE CAUSES OF CARELESSNESS Mahāvira preaches on the fault of carelessness (pramāda), which leads monks to neglect the pious observances. A monk should live alone, or else associate with an equal in virtue or a superior; he should own no property and so destroy desire, love, hatred, delusion and delusion is the origin of desire." This old Indian simile of the interaction beware of the senses, which are treated in order, each with a simile: form, operating on the sight, brings destruction as a flame to a moth which it attracts; sound lures to death, as a song does a deer; smell is fatal, as when it entices a snake from its hole; the taste of bait is the ruin of a fish; the cool touch of water lures a buffalo into a pool, where a crocodile seizes him; the feeling of carnal desire for the female seduces the bull elephant and he is entrapped.
The three illustrations in HV (fig. 128), JM (fig. 129; misplaced, as usual, by two chapters), and DV (fig. 130) deal with stanza 6 of the text: “Just as the crane is produced from the egg and the egg is produced from the crane, so, they say, desire is the origin of delusion and delusion is the origin of desire." This old Indian simile of the interaction between desire and delusion is illustrated with a chicken taking the place of the crane, and might serve to fit the English puzzler of which came first, the hen or the egg. Each of these three manuscripts has a hen and number of eggs, while Mahāvira is seated on his throne preaching. HỒ has a monk listening, and JM has two monks.
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