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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
537
An ascetic must not dine at night.
Oh son, you are very tender and totally engrossed in various pleasures, and so you are incapable of observing monkish order of life. Self-restraint is so tough and insipid as a morsel of sand. Treading on the path of penances is equally difficult as treading on the edge of a sword. Enjoy the pleasures for the time being and you may get yourself initiated later on with pleasure".
Hearing the words of the parents, Mrugaputra said, “You are right, but for a selfless person nothing is difficult in this world. Moreover, I have more than often undergone physical and mental tortures generating miseries and fear in this world. Please therefore, grant your consent for my initiation into monkish mode of life.
Parents replied: "Oh son, if you so desire, you may embrace the monkish order of life ; but mind that you will have to face difficulties usually felt in such order of life. You will have to eradicate them".
Mrugaputra said : "You indeed are true. Birds and animals, do eradicate the difficulties, diseases and fear. Just as a forest deer happily moves in the jungle, I shall move happily in such monkish order of life.
Realising their son's acute disgust for worldly affairs, the parents' heart melted with expression. They said : “Oh child, do as you please".
No sooner did he receive such consent of his parents, than he broke from all attachments as an elephant does with the hard armour. He renounced all and everything---wealth, friends, wife, sons and relatives etc.
Monk Mrugaputra engaged himself in the observance of five great vows, five right modes of acting and three modes of selfrestraint. He began to live without attachment and ego and with equanimity of mind. Thereafter, having destroyed his passions with the help of meditation he became affirmed in 'Holy Command' (Sāsana).
Having sanctified his Soul with various pure emotions of knowledge, intuition, right conduct and penances for many years, he
