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JAIN RAMAYAN
watering from the time he heard the cry of the child. He hurriedly went into the cottage; took up the child and came out at once. He ran away from there concealing the child, in his hands. But the child did not stop crying; therefore while running away he strangled the child and silenced it for ever and began to tear off and eat raw flesh. In consequence, his hands, his face, his clothes and his body were all covered with fresh blood. He appeared to be terrible like a ghost or a monster. He looked a veritable monster. His hunger was a little appeased. On the way, he drank water to his fill in a lake and then in, order to take rest he lay beneath a tree. As soon as he lay down he slept and he began snoring loudly.
Sodas who was once the darling of the noble queen Simhika was now a homeless cannibal, a heartless monster. What a terrible mockery of fate! Such dramas get enacted on the stage of life. How can there be serenity and felicity in such meaningless samsar ? It is a mirage. It pleases the mind for a moment, exercising a transient allurement. The Jiva who is plunged in illusory happiness adds fuel to his own funeral pyre; burns himself and becomes ashes. Sodas travelled northwards from there. When he was thus travelling deeply lost in his own obsession he saw a bullock-cart coming from the opposite direction. A man and woman were sitting in the bullock-cart with their two children. No sooner had he seen the children than his tongue began watering. He suddenly fell upon the bullock-cart. In the twinkling of an eye he killed the man and woman and ran away carrying the children. The children began screaming in fear. On hearing the screams of the children the peasants working in the fields came running and began chasing Sodas. Noticing that the peasants were coming to attack him Sodas dashed the children on the ground and killed them mercilessly. Then he pounced upon the peasants who were chasing him. They too had come prepared for a fight. They had with them sticks, swords, spades and other implements and weapons. Seeing the terrible face of Sodas the peasants were terrified but because they were in a group they did not lose heart. They surrounded · Sodas on all sides.
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