How Buddha Subdued the Elephant Nalagiri with his Loving Kindness : Buddha Story

Devadatta entered the chambers of the king. He was the cousin and brother-in-law of Buddha. He joined the Sangha long time back when Buddha had visited Kapilavastu, the capital city of Sakyan kingdom, immediately after his enlightenment. Now it was several years since he had joined Sangha and he felt that now Buddha had grown old and the leadership of Sangha should be handed over to him. He went to Buddha with this proposal but Buddha refused. Buddha refused another of his proposals to make changes in the rules for the monks. In anger, he broke the Sangha and established his school. With his 500 followers, Devadatta went to the crown prince Ajatsatru of Magadh and won his confidence. The prince became his devout follower. He provoked the prince to kill King Bimbisara and capture the throne. He asked the prince that after he becomes the king, in return for his help, he should get Buddha killed. The prince was convinced that this was the perfect plan but instead of killing his father, he imprisoned him and captured the throne of Magadh. Now the new king needed to return the favor. The king had a very aggressive and large elephant named Nalagiri. He was very hard to control and all the Mahavats were scared of him as he had killed several men before. As per the plot, Devadatta went to the royal Mahavat and bribed him to get the elephant intoxicated with liquor. Once Buddha was seen walking on the road of Rajgriha, along with his followers, the intoxicated elephant was set loose. The ferocious elephant came charging towards him, destroying everything on the path. When his prime disciple Ananda saw the elephant Nalagiri coming charging towards Buddha, he moved in front of Buddha to protect him from the elephant. Buddha told Ananda that nothing could harm him and asked him to step away. Buddha moved slowly towards the elephant and once the charging elephant came in front of him, he put his hand over his trunk and head. Nalagiri immediately became quiet with the loving kindness of Buddha. He simply sat on the feet of Buddha. By that time, King Ajatsatru had realized that he had committed mistakes. He ordered his father to be released immediately but when the guards went to the prison to release Bimbisara, they found that he was already dead. It was too late for the release. The king repented and went to Buddha to seek forgiveness for his attempts to assassinate him.