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stepped into that way. The sna ke glanced at the sun and blew out a terrific fire in his hiss at Mahavira, Mahavira stood firm in meditation. The hiss failed to have any effect on him. He stood motionless with his eyes shut. When the snake saw that his venom, which he had known to be nonfailing, had failed in this case, he became all the more infuriated, and his rage knew no bound. So he crawled towards Mahavira and gave him a severe bite at the finger on the leg. Even then the poison had no effect. So he crawled on the body and gave a severe bite at the shoulder; but still the poison failed to overpower him. Mahavira stood firm and motionless as before, completely immersed in meditation (dhyana-mudra). The snake found that the man's blood was very tasteful and sweet. So he started sucking more and more of it. But soon he felt a curiosity at this wonderful event. His poison had never failed to act on a human body. But this was the first occasion when it had failed. He wondered as to how this happened. As he concentrated on his own thinking, at once he revived his memory of his previous birth, and he realised that the man who stood in his front was no less a person than the 24th Tirthankara. Mahāvira. At once, he became very much alarmed. Thought he,
'In biting him, I have committed the greatest sin.'
He crawled down from his body and rolled in remorse at his feet. At this moment, he remembered not only his present crime, but all the crimes committed by him throughout his life, and even those committed by him in his previous life on account of his outrageous nature, discussed them, decried them, returned to his hole, gave up his attachment to his own body and started living without taking anything. He gave up his natural instinct of giving a bite to human beings and other animals, big as well as small, Totally unmindful of the body, he concentrated wholly on his own self.
When people saw that inspite of their repeated warnings, the monk did not pay any heed to them but proceeded on the same route, they were taken by surprise. Some people followed him at a safe distance. When they witnessed the whole'episode, their surprise knew no bound. The complete pacification of such a dreaded reptile could not but be viewed as a very unusual event. After having
| SR No. | 022804 |
| Book Title | Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Nagaraj Muni |
| Publisher | Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers |
| Publication Year | 1986 |
| Total Pages | 804 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 19 MB |