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"On the 8th, 14th and full-moon days of the fortnight, people of other faiths meet together and hold discourses. Bhante!. I wonder why this cannot be introduced for our own order of monks".
The Buddha at once gave his approval to this request.
Prohibiting the initiation of soldiers
In another meeting with the Buddha, Bimbisara requested the Buddha not to initiate into monkhood men of the armed personnel. At that time, a war was going on at the frontier of the kingdom for which men were sent to the frontier in order to fight. In order to escape from this to save their life, many got initiated into the order as monks. The request was granted by the Buddha.
Once King Bimbisara assembled round him the representatives of 80, 000 villages which were under his administration. He gave them necessary direction about social, political and economic matters. In the end, he added,
"All that I have said so far pertain to this world. For a knowledge of things beyond this world, you should take shelter with the Buddha".
Thereafter, all of them came to the Grddhrakūta mountain and placed themselves under the protection of the Buddha (17).
It has been noticed elsewhere in this volume that King Bimbisara engaged the famous royal physician Jivaka Kauma rahhrtya for the treatment of the Buddha and his monks. There are also records of King Bimbisara having erected shelters for the residence of the monks and the nuns of the order(18).
According to the Petavatthu Aṭṭhakatha, King Srenika practised upo satha on the 8th and the 14th days of the fortnight and also on the new moon and full-moon days (19).
The Buddha's appearance in prison
According to the Amitāyurdhyāna Sutta of the, Mahayana Buddhism, when in the last part of his life, Sreņika