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PRINCE MEHA
117. good, and his resolutions being praiseworthy, Meha, the friar attained the memory of his former births. Then Friar Meha thoroughly realised this fact and hence continued to live among friars.
Then once upon a time, the Ascetic, Lord Mahávíra, set out to travel about in outer countries.
Then Friar Meha continued to purify himself with diverse mortifications.
Now by this noble and abundant mortification, Friar Meha became withered, wizened, fleshless, bloodless; he grew so that his bones rattled; he became a mere frame of bone and skin, emaciated, overspread with veins. It was by force of spirit alone that he walked and he halted. He was faint after speaking, in speaking, and before speaking. As forsooth a cart full of coals, or of sticks, or of leafage, goes with a creaking and halts with a creaking, so Friax Meba went with a creaking and halted with a creaking.
67. In those days, at that time, the Ascetic, Lord Mahávíra arrived in the city of Ráyagiha.
Now, at night, in the first part of the latter half of it, while Friar Meha was holding a religious vigil, there arose in him the following thought : "Truly I by this noblo mortification (down to) halt with a creaking. Therefore, while I have yet within me exertion; work, power, energy, faith, courage and fear of the world, and while my religious preceptor, my religious instructor, the Ascetic Lord Mahávíra is yet staying here it is better for me, when the night brightens into dawn, taking permission of the Ascetic, Lord Mahávíra, to take upon myself the
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