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ARDHA-MAGADHI READER
shore, so do we who long for sensual pleasures, not follow the path of monks.
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31.
'Time elapses and quickly pass the days; the pleasures of men are not permanent; they come to a man and leave him just as a bird leaves a tree void of fruit.'
32.
"If you are unable to abandon pleasure. then do noble actions, O king; following the Law, have compassion on all creatures; then you will become a god on entering a new existence.
33. "If you have no intention of abandoning pleasure, and still long for undertakings and property, my long talk has been to no purpose. I go, king, farewell."
34. And Bambhadatta, king of the Pamcálas, did not act on the counsel of the saint; he enjoyed the highest pleasure, and afterwards sank in the deepest hell.
35. But Citra the great sage, of excellent conduct and penance, was indifferent to pleasure; after he had practised the highest self-control, he reached the highest place of perfection.
(Uttarajjhayana, Chapter XIII.)
36. Having been gods in a former existence and lived in the same heavenly region, some were born here below in the ancient, wealthy and famous town called Ishukára, which is beautiful like heaven. (1)
1. In Prakrit उसुधार (or इसुयार). According to the Prakrit legend given in the commentary it was in the Kuru country.
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