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sweetmeats? If you want to eat sweetmeats, take a rope, go to Mt. Ambaratilaka for a load of wood, Ugliness.' Burned by that speech as if by a dung-fire, crying, she took a rope and went to the mountain.
At that time omniscience had come to Muni Yugandhara, engaged in pratima 1 for one night on the peak of the mountain. Then a great festival called 'the festival of omniscience' was being celebrated in his honor by the gods at hand. Then the people living in the towns and villages near the mountain competed with each other to show him honor. When she saw the people, decorated with many ornaments, going there, Nirnāmikā stood in astonishment, as if she were painted in a picture. She found out the reason for the people coming continuously and, throwing aside her load of wood like a load of pain, she set out. With the people Nirnāmikā ascended the mountain, since tirthas are common to all. Considering the muni's feet to be a kalpa-tree she honored them with joy. The wish is in accordance with fate.
Then the muni, benefiting all the world, delivered a sermon in a deep voice, delighting the world like a cloud': 'The enjoyment of pleasures of the senses by men causes a fall to the ground of existence, like ascending a bed woven of unseasoned ropes. All creatures' association with son, friend, and wife is like travelers' sleeping in a dwelling made in one village. The burden of pain is endless, arising from the manifestations of their karma, for those wandering here in the eighty-four lacs of birthnuclei.' 82 Then Nirnamika with folded hands said to the Blessed One, 'From what you say there is equality between king and beggar. You have declared that samsara is the abode of sorrow. Is there any one in it more afflicted than I am?' The Blessed One replied: "What
81 548. Pratima in this sense of meditating in a particular posture is practically the same as kāyotsarga. But they must always stand in pratima, whereas kāyotsarga may be either standing or sitting.
82 558. There are 84 lacs of species of birth-nuclei.
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