________________
358
that he coliided with a dry heavy stump of a tree and his throat was cut with his own axe, and he instantly breathed his last, unable as it were to see an insult.
Dying with wicked notions in his mind, Kulapati Caņda Kausika was born as a dreadful snake emitting poison from its eyes in the garden, owing to his earnest fondness for that garden. On hearing the newe of the death of the Kulapati, former hermits of the āśrama came back and settled near the garden. The snake on account of his previous fondness for the garden thought of carefully protecting it. When he was one day moving about, here and inere, he saw the tāpasas there, and angrily directing his eyes towards the disc of the Sun, he burnt away some of them by the fire issuing from it while others fled in different directions. In this way, whi e going about every where, the snake burnt away any beast or bird or any living being that happened to be in the garden. Besides, that snake used to torment men. dicants, beggars, and travellers who were passing by the garden. That road had become unpassable on account of the terror of the snake. This then, is the account of the previous bhava of Caqda Kausika snake.
Now, while moving about from one place to another, Caqda Kausika snake, on seeing Sranana Bhagavān Mahāvira standing in Kayotsarga -( perfect renunciation of body )-in the temple of yakşa was greatly enraged and thinking. "Ah! this man does not know my prowess," and emitting his venom four-fold by locking at the disc of the Sun, the snake-extremely terrible with agitated eyes sparkling like the feathers of a peacock, began to look at Sramana Bhagavån Mahāvīrs repeatedly with the object of burning him. The venomous glance of the snake throwing poison from his eyes, falling on the nectar-like cold of the Jinéndra proved futile owing to the wonderful-excellence of His super-natural powers. When the venomous glance of the snake was unable to touch even the fine hairs of the body of śramaņa Bhagavān Mahāvīra, and when his powers of attack falled, the snake raised up his extended hood and with a hissing breath full of venomparticles, he speedily rushed to the Venerable Bhagavān with the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org