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MAHAVIRA'S WANDERING AS AN ASCETIC
lightning, like the blazing flame of submarine fire multiplied. Making the sound, taḍat, taḍiti, watched by the terrified gods, discharged by the lord of gods, it attacked Camara. The Asura, unable to look at the thunderbolt like an owl sunlight, dropped head over heels like a bat.
Wishing to reach Blessed Mahavira as a refuge, Camara fled quickly like a yak129 from a cheetah. As he fled, he was ridiculed by the gods: "O basest of Asuras, how is it you, not knowing yourself, eager to fight, made an attack on Sakra, like a frog on a snake, like a goat on an elephant, like an elephant on a śarabha, like a snake on a garuḍa?
He, whose body had been so large, had a light body instantly and went very quickly like a cloud blown by the wind. Following him, whose body had been made small like that of a lizard, the thunderbolt glowed, filled with a mass of flames. Now, as soon as the thunderbolt had been discharged, Vajrin thought: The Asuras do not have the power to come here by themselves. I think he has come here with power created by concentrating on an Arhat, or the statue of an Arhat, or some great sage." Reflecting thus, Sakra knew by clairvoyance that Indra Camara had come by the Master's power and that he was going to the Master. Saying, "Oh ! Oh ! I am undone !" Indra ran very, very fast by the thunderbolt's path, his ornaments, necklace, et cetera, falling apart. Because his own country was below, Camara went first, behind him the thunderbolt, and behind it Vajrin in turn. Although he had started later, Indra was extremely fast from his own power and got close to them, like an elephant to its driver. The Asura with the thunderbolt of death near somehow reached Mahāvīra standing in statuesque posture, like an elephant injured by a forest-fire reaching a river. Saying, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Camara, who had become as small as a kunthu, entered the
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129 432. The anglicized cheetah is H. cītā, a hunting leopard. Camara, the yak, does not seem appropriate here. The yak and cheetah do not live in the same part of India and would not normally meet each other. Camara is probably used merely for the name.
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