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tried their best to prevent, him, but at last they yielded to some extent,
"If you must attend, do so from outside". Addressing śreșthi Mrgāra, the Buddha said,
"You may choose to sit behind the tent, a wall, a mountain or at the far-end of the Cakrawala; I am Buddha and hence can make you listen to the sermons."
The Buddha started his sermon. Like a branch of a mango tree, laden with ripe golden mangoes' which drop when the branch is shaken, so, as the Buddha progressed in his sermon, the sins of the Sresthi started dropping out, and by the time the Buddha ended, the Sreşthi had his pure spiritual eye opened. The curtain was removed. The Sresthi moved forward, lowered his five limbs till the ground and bowed at the feet of the Great Leader. In the august presence of the Buddha, he said to Visakha,
"From this day, you are no longer my daughter, but my mother, and as 'mother', I shall address you".
He bowed before her as one does before his mother and sucked her breast. From that day, Visakhā became known as Mrgara-mātā or mother of Mrgāra. One of Visakhā's own sons was also named Mrgāra. (24)
The Sreşthi organised a grand celebration to mark the occasion of his accepting Visakhā as his mother, and the Buddha and his monks were invited to attend. She was bathed with 15 jars full of flower essence and was given an ornament named ghana-matthaka-prasādhana by the Sresthi. It was worth' a lakh (25).
Mrgāra-mātā Visakhă invited 500 monks everyday to dine at her house(26). She was very regular at the Buddha's sermon, she personally looked after and took care of guests, patients, outgoing monks, incoming monks junior monks, and others sheltered at the vihara(27).
• It was a festive day. Dressed in their finest clothes, people on the road to th
where they were
