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Life and Stories of Pārçvanātha
image of Çiva, inhabited by a Vyantara. Constantly he prayed: • Since thou, O Lord, art pleased, may my fortunes ever prosper; to thee alone, do I resort. Show favor, supreme Lord!' Thus importuned, the god became worried (sacinta). Then the religious observed that his offering had been removed. He made another, and stood in hiding to see what would happen to it. A rough Pulindra (! pulindraka),37 with bow and arrow in his left hand, with flowers in his right, and his mouth full of water, came there in a hurry, pushed aside with his foot the previous offering, squirted water out of his mouth, threw down a heap of flowers, and reverenced the idol. Thereupon the pleased god started to hold conversation with the Pulindra. The religious, observing this, grew angry. After the Pulindra was gone, he abused the god: 'Just as he is a Pulindra, so you are a Kațapūtana; 38 you converse with a low-born individual, but you do not show yourself to me, even in a dream !' (761). The god told him to wait; he would show him the difference between himself and the Pulindra. Next day, when the religious came there, he saw that the god was blind of one eye. The religious deplored this greatly, and hinted that the god's association with low-born people (meaning the Pulindra) had got him into this evil plight. While he was thus condoling, the Pulindra came along, took in the situation, gouged out his own eye with an arrow, and gave it to the idol. The god offered the Pulindra whatever he might desire, but he wanted nothing, and went as he came. The god pointed the moral: the divine powers do not take delight in external worship (bāhya
See pp. 223 and 230. 23 A kind of preta, or ghost. According to Manu 12. 71, the ghost of a renegade Ksatriya.
