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........ MAHĀVĪRA'S WANDERING AS AN ASCETIC 93
His jealousy increased greatly when he saw Śri Vira standing so, undisturbed, a disinterested friend of the world. The rogue, a disgrace to the gods, sent down a rain of sand with sudden disaster on the Lord of the World. Just as the moon was hidden by Rāhu, just as the sun by a rainy day, so the Lord of the World's body was hidden by the stream of sand. When the body-openings were entirely filled with sand, then the Master was deprived of inspiration and expiration. The Teacher of the World did not move from meditation even the extent of a sesame seed. Does a mountain move because of elephants stooped (to strike with their tusks)?
Then he took away the sand and produced ants with hard beaks that tortured the Lord's body. They penetrated his limbs one by one and went elsewhere at will, perforating with their sharp beaks like needles in cloth. When these proved to be in vain, like the wishes of an unlucky man, he produced stinging insects. There is no limit to the crimes of wicked people. From one attack of theirs, the Lord with his dripping blood, which resembled milk, was like Himālaya with waterfalls. When the Lord of the World was unshaken even by them, the villain made cockroaches with large, pointed beaks, irresistible. Their beaks buried in the Supreme Lord's body, they looked like a line of hair grown up all at once.
When the mind of the Teacher of the World, celebrated for self-concentration, was unmoved even by them, he made huge scorpions, determined on destruction of the meditation. They divided the Blessed One's body with the thorns of the sprouts of their tails, cruel hot javelins that resembled sparks of the fire at the end of the world. When the Lord was undisturbed even by these he, filled with depravity, made numerous ichneumons with many teeth. Making the sound “Khi, khi,” tearing the Blessed One's body with their teeth, piece by piece, they made pieces of flesh fall. Not accomplishing his purpose even by these, from anger he used serpents with large swelling hoods, cruel arms of Yama. The big serpents encircled Mahāvīra completely from head to foot, like tendrils of cowhage
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