________________
408
charge in your worthy hands and requested you to rectify me in case I committed any error. You have now exonerated me from the charges levelled against me by father-in-law. So now I feel free to depart of my own".
Then turning to her maids, she said,
"Get my chariot ready at once".
Sresthi Mrgara looked blank. He knew not what to say or do. In deep penetence, he pathetically appealed to Visakha's good sense:
All I said and did was the outcome Please forgive
"My daughter! of my own stupidity and ignorance. me".
Visakha said,
"Sir! I am born in a family which is devoted to the Buddha. I am used to serving the Buddhist order of monks. If I am permitted freedom of faith and conscience, then only I may live in your house".
Sresthi Mrgara agreed to everything. He gave her leave to invite the Buddha with all his monks. As for himself, he said that he would keep himself wholly out of her way.
Visakha invited the Buddha and his monks on the following day. When the Buddha arrived, the whole house was filled up with his monks. Visakha welcomed the party. When the nude sramanas heard that the Buddha had been received at the house of Sresthi Mrgara, they came running and besieged the house. Meanwhile, Visakha gave water to the Buddha and the monks to wash and sent words to her father-in-law to come and serve food to the Buddha. But Mrgara was afraid of the nude monks and so he did not show his face. After the Buddha and his monks had dined, Visakha again sent words to her father-in-law to come and listen the sermon from the Buddha. The Sresthi thought that it would not be decent on his part to decline. So he came out of his room. The nude monks
