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56
SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
The two hands touch the knees The eyes are fixed on the aim It is the dark of night-pitch dark of the deepest kind
The Lord feels that the doomsday has arrived It is a dust storm Each part of the body is dust-filled How oppressing is the experience! The Lord was unruffled Now the dust storm is over and the ants with sharp stings bite him The Lord is still unmoved
The moment the ants had done, the mosquitoes swarmed the air The sharp pricks puncture every pore and blood oozes everywhere
The moment the mosquitoes spare him, white ants make him their food Scorpions follow next Then come mongooses, snakes, rodents, elephants and tigers How long would the monsters be behind ? But each species of pests went as fast as it came, defeated in its purpose
Then the suppressed urges, the latencies, disguised themselves Cruelty masked itself with compassion Simultaneously, Trishala and Siddhartha stood face to face before him and expostualated with him, 'What led you Kumar to desert us ini our old age? Turn homeward, come and see how miserable we are without you'Their piteous petitions failed to melt him,
In the wake of their disappearance a divine damsel faced him Her alluring gestures and lascivious suggestions were the wavelets that vibrated the air Her provocative, gait and flirtatious smile ravished the atmosphere The minute bells of her anklets would set any romantic heart aflame The Lord however was untouched by it
Many such ordeals appeared and were gone as fast The shield of meditation of the Lord was so impenetrable that the darts were bent back His spiritualism was so chaste and inviolate that no adversity could damage it At last the clouds were cleared The azure sky is bright like a crystal and the laughing rays of the new sun broadcast the final victory 1
1 'Awashyakchurni' 1 pt. pp 304-305
