Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 88

48
CHAPTER THREE taken up his abode here. I shall take away his arrogance."
Then, when the priest had gone and the sun had set and the Lord was standing in kāyotsarga, the Vyantara gave a loud burst of laughter. By the very cruel, spreading noise of the outburst of laughter he burst the sky-vessel and broke the star circle, as it were. The people of the village heard the sound and said to each other, “ Now the poor devārya78 is being killed by the Vyantara.” Then the mendicant, Utpala by name, the head-monk of Pārśva's congregation, learned in the science of the eightfold mahānimitta, 79 heard the story of the devārya from the people and felt uncertainty in his heart. He thought anxiously, “May it not be the last Tirthankara.” :
When the Lord was not disturbed by the noise of the burst of laughter, the Vyantara created the terrifying form of an elephant. The elephant-form being scorned by the Master, he made the figure of a piśāca tall as the measuring-rod of heaven and earth. The Lord being undisturbed by him also, he, evil-souled, created the fearful form of a serpent which resembled Yama's noose. Blind with arrogance, the serpent coiled tightly around the Lord and, possessing an infallible jet of poison, bit him severly with its fangs. When the serpent had proved useless, the demon-chief made seven wounds on the Lord's head, eye, ear, nose, tooth, back and nail. One wound alone was sufficient to kill an ordinary man; but the Master endured the seven at the same time. After he had made these successive attacks, the Vyantara, depressed, bowed to the Lord with his hands at his forehead, declared,
“Lord, pardon the very great crimes that I, evil-souled and ignorant of your power, committed against you, Ocean of Compassion.”
At that time the god Siddhārtha, his mind absorbed in his own work, remembered Sakra's orders in regard to attendance on the Master. He came and said haughtily:
78 124. " 125.
A respectful title of a sādhu: 'revered sādhu.' The science of omens. For the 8 divisions see II, n. 346.