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192
MAHÂVAGGA.
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1, 39, 3.
the life they live are commodious; they have good meals and lie down on beds protected from the wind. What if we were to embrace the religious life among the Sakyaputtiya Samanas: then the Bhikkhus will nurse us, and Givaka Komârabhakka will cure us.'
Thus these persons went to the Bhikkhus and asked them for the pabbaggâ ordination ; the Bhikkhus conferred on them the pabbaggâ and upasampadâ ordinations; and the Bhikkhus nursed them, and Givaka Komârabhakka cured them.
3. At that time the Bhikkhus, who had to nurse many sick Bhikkhus, began to solicit (lay people) with many demands and many requests : 'Give us food for the sick; give us food for the tenders of the sick; give us medicine for the sick. And also Givaka Komârabhakka, who had to treat many sick Bhikkhus, neglected some of his duties to the king.
4. Now one day a man who was affected with the five diseases went to Givaka Komârabhakka and said: 'Pray, doctor, cure me.'
'I have too many duties, Sir, and am too occupied; I have to treat the Magadha king Seniya Bimbisára, and the royal seraglio, and the fraternity of Bhikkhus with the Buddha at their head; I cannot cure you.'
‘All that I possess shall be yours, doctor, and I will be your slave; pray doctor, cure me.' 'I have too many duties, Sir, &c.; I cannot cure you.'
5. Now that man thought: ‘Indeed the precepts which these Sakyaputtiya Samanas keep (&c., down to :): then the Bhikkhus will nurse me, and Givaka Komârabhakka will cure me. When I have become free from sickness, then I will return to the world.'
Thus that man went to the Bhikkhus and asked them for the pabbaggâ ordination; the Bhikkhus
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