Greed-A Passion (Lobh Kashaya)

Once a queen saw a person collecting wooden logs from a river. She requested her husband (the King) to give him some wealth. The King called the person. The person demanded a bull to complete the pair of a bull, he already had.

The King went to his house to examine his bull. He saw there hundreds of pairs of birds and animals made of precious stones (jewels). His wife gave a Ratnathal (large jewel plate) full of jewels to her husband to present to the King. As the Seth took that plate in his hands, due to excessive greed, his fingers turned to look like snakehoods.

Seeing all this, the King rebuked him & named him as “PHANHAST”. After death that greedy person was born as a snake in his own wealth storage. There he was killed by his own sons. After death, because of its greed the snake was born in the fourth hell.

Q. 1. Who is the greedy Seth in the picture?
Q. 2. How much pairs of birds and animals he had?
Q. 3. Why he was named as ‘PHANHAST’?
Q. 4. What is the harm of greed?