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Kesi - "For living beings, tortured by physical and mental pain, which place do you .consider wholesome, full of bliss and free from obstructions"?
Gautama - "There is a permanent place at the crest of the sphere where there is no old age, death, disease or pain. But to reach there is extremely difficult".
Kesi - "What place is that"?
Gautama - "That place attained by the great sages has been variously called nirvana, avyābādha, siddhi, lokāgra, ksema, śiva and anābādha. Oh monk ! This is a place where one may eternally live, which is at the crest of the sphere, but which is most difficult to attain. Great souls who attain this position terminate the long course of wordly life and be free from anxiety".
Concluding the discussion, Keśikumāra said,
"Great monk Gautama! Your wisdom is profound. You have uprooted my doubts. So, oh one who is free from all doubts, oh one who has mastered all the Sutras, I bow to thee".
Having bowed to Ganadhara Gautama, Sramaņa Kesikumara,with siis vast body of monks accepted the religion of 'five vows' with deep devotion and joined the holy order of Bhagavan Mahāvira (17).
Like Sramana Keśikumāra, many others, notably monk Kālās avesiyaputta (18), monk Gangeya (19), Pedhälaputta Udaka (20), and others, held discussions on the fundamentals and changed over from the religion of 'four vows to one of 'five vows'.
The above account brings to our knowledge the history of the absorption of the Order of Arhat Par sva by the emerging Order of Bhagavan Mahavira, 2s also the points of difference or divergence between the two which kept them separate till this absorption.
