The next time Parsva renounced his throne when he discovered his first grey hair. As an ascetic, he gained such supernatural powers that all around him, land and living beings enjoyed happiness and harmony. As a result, when Kamatha now killed him, he was able to achieve the highest divine form of an Indra.
Parsva’s life cycle had reached maturation; in his fifth human existence, he was born as a prince of Benares and very early, the omens revealed him a future Tirthankara. At the age of eight years, he took the basic Jain vows. The circle was now complete: on an excursion into the forest, he encountered Kamatha, who now was an ascetic. The company disturbed the latter and in order to work off his anger the ascetic seized his axe to split a log of wood. The young boy Parsva pleaded with him not to do so, since two snakes were sheltering in the log, but Kamatha ignored the plea and split the log, killing the two snakes.