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ŚRI MAHAVIRA'S NIRVĀŅA
339
king and minister were different and they planned to make the king and minister possessed by demons. 'These two, with practices different from ours have avoided that. We shall make the king and minister, who are different, like ourselves.'
The minister learned about the plan and told the king; and the king said, ' How will we protect ourselves from them? A mob is like a king.' The minister said: 'Becoming possessed by a demon, we must behave like those possessed by a demon. There is no other means of protection. This is suitable for the occasion.' Then pretending to be possessed by a demon, the king and minister lived in their midst, guarding their own good fortune. Then at the proper time a good rain came and when the new water had been drunk, all became well, having their original nature. Thus in the evil period of time the ascetics will live with the false sadhus, having become like them, waiting for their own opportunity in future."
After hearing the meaning of his dreams, noble Punyapāla, enlightened, took initiation and in course of time attained emancipation.
The fifth spoke (74-153)
Gaṇabhṛt Gautama bowed to the Blessed One and said: "The Blessed Rṣabha was at the end of the third spoke (of the wheel of time). In the fourth spoke in the avasarpiņi there were twenty-three Arhats, beginning with Ajita and ending with you, Teacher of the World. Please tell what will happen in future in the fifth spoke called duḥṣamā (evil), Supreme Lord."
The Master said: "The fifth spoke will begin three years, eight and one half months after my emancipation. When nineteen hundred and fourteen years have passed after my emancipation, on the eighth day of Caitra in the half-tithi Vişti,255 in a Mleccha family there will be a king, known by 255 79. A tithi is a lunar day. This is an inauspicious half-tithi.
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