Muni Kishan Lal
Harikeshbal was ugly and bad tempered. He was born in a so- called low caste family. He was playing with his friends. As there was fight among them, others refused to include him in the game. He got very angry. He felt insulted due to the fight and abuses. He felt sad. All of a sudden a serpent appeared in the bush. All the boys hit it with stones and stick and the serpent died. They just threw it into the bush. After some time there was a serpent which had two faces. The boys did not harm it. Very quietly it passed into the bush. Harikesh started thinking about these two incidents. He was surprised. He wondered why the boys killed one serpent whereas they spared the other. He was curious to know why different treatments were meted out to the same species. To this an old man said, "The first one was a poisonous snake. That is why it was killed. It could harm anyone if it bit. But the second was non poisonous therefore it was spared. "Harikeshbal started thinking. "Probably I am ill tempered that is why I am excommunicated. If I had not been bad tempered I would not have fought and if I had not fought they would not have excommunicated me." Thinking so, he sat down to introspect and meditate. He came to the conclusion that anger is the root cause of all ills. Anger kills the self and causes misery to others. Anger leads to misery and misery leads to anger.
As he thought of anger and ego he felt he should concentrate and meditate in order to conquer these too. There was clarity of thought. Everything became clear and his aura was getting cleansed. He was free from desire, attachment and was able to recall the incidents of his previous birth by iha apoh margana gaveshna. He realised that his name had been Somdutt in his previous birth. He had been proud, egoistic and ill tempered since he was considered to be born in the high caste of brahmins. "Though I became an ascetic I was full of pride of belonging to a high caste. That is why now I am reborn in a supposedly low caste family. As I was ill tempered nobody wanted to befriend me." The moment he recalled these incidents he felt detached. Harikeshbal decided to become a monk. He did severe penance and a Yaksha was so pleased that he gave him some special powers. He went for bhiksha but did not get it in the yagya of brahmin Sowmill (which was being performed then). He felt he was insulted, but remained with equanimity. The yaksha, however, punished the students participating in the yagya. Then Sowmil apologized and gave Bhiksha. This is explained in detail in the Uttaradhyayan sutra.
