The Two Hands of God: The Myths of Polarity by Alan Watts

Author:Alan Watts [Watts, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781608686865
Barnesnoble:
Published: 2019-10-19T19:28:11+00:00

130 · THE TWO HANDS OF GOD

then explained: ‘There are dwelling in that log a serpent and his mate: do not murder them for nothing.’

Mahipala’s state of mind was not improved by this peremptory advice. He turned and demanded with searing scorn: ‘And who are you? Brahma? Visnu? Siva? I perceive that you can see everything, no matter where.’ He raised his ax and deliberately brought i t down. The log was split. And there were the two serpents, cut in half.

The boy’s heart bled when he beheld the writhing, dying creatures. ‘Do you not feel compassion?’ he demanded of the old man. ‘Grandfather, you are without knowledge. These austerities of yours are absolutely worthless.’

Mahipala, at that, lost all control. ‘I see, I see, I see! ‘ he cried. ‘You are a sage, a very great sage. But I am your grandfather. Besides, I am a hermit. I practice the penance of the Five Fires. I stand for days on one leg with lifted arms. I suffer hunger; thirst; break my fast only with dry leaves. Surely i t is proper that a youngster, such as you, should call the austerities of his grandfather fruitless and u nwise!’

The little prince answered firmly, but in a sweet and wonderfully gentle tone. ‘The spirit of envy,’ he said, ‘infects all of your practices; and you are killing animals here every day with your fires. To injure others, even if only a little, is to be guilty of a great sin; but great suffering is the consequence even of a little sin. Such practices as yours, divorced as they are from right knowledge, are as barren as chaff separated from grain. Give up this meaningless self-torture; follow the way of the Tirthailkaras and perform right acts, in right faith and right knowledge: for that is the only road to emancipation.’

The Lord Parsva then chanted a hymn to the dying serpents and they expired to his presence calmly. He returned to his palace and they-following such a meritorious death-were immediately reborn in the underworld: the male was now Dharanendra, ‘Lord of the Earth’ (the cosmic snake, Sesa, who

The Two Brothers · 131

supports the earth on his head), and the female, Padmavarti (the goddess Laksmi). They enjoyed unbounded delight.

Crotchety old Mahipala, it must now be told, was none other than the wicked brother. As a lion, he had slain and eaten the savior at the end of his previous incarnation, and in consequence had been hurled to the sufferings of the fifth hell, where he had remained for a period of seventeen oceans of time. After that, for a period of three oceans of time, he had passed through a number of incarnations in the forms of quadrupeds, during the last of which he performed certain meritorious acts, and in reward he was reborn as this old ruffian. But the words of the grandson bore no fruit. The hermit continued in his unproductive practices, and at last expired.

The prince grew to young manhood, and when

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