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MUINPATI
99
behaved towards his benefactor, so you have done towards me."
The monk ptotested,
"A monk never forgets the good done to him. He is even good to his malefactors To do good to others is a part of him So it is never possible that a monk does harm to others He does good to others not only when he is alive, but he continues to do so, as did Metarya, even after he was liberated from this body"
Kunchika asked, 'Oh monkı Who was this Metarya who continued to do good to others even after he was liberated of this mortal frame?
Monk Munipati started his account
"There lived one Mehara who belonged to a lowly caste in the city of Rajagriha Meti was the name of his wife The couple lived a happy life In the same city, there lived a wealthy man, a seth, and Meti was a regular visitor to his house The visits were so frequent that despite a wide social gap, there grew an intimacy between Meti and the seth's wife They spent hours in the company of each other, and they never hesitated to open their hearts
“Women have a dominant urge to acquire motherhood. They are so keen to bring forth progeny that any obstacle to that is unbearable to them The seth's wife had undergone pregnancy several times, but as ill-luck prevailed, on each occasion she gave birth to a dead child In consequence, there was no child alive to make the house cheerful, a great tragedy for the family One day, the lady shared her grief with Meti Meti felt compassion for her friend and said, 'If ever we are pregnant about the same time, we shall exchange our offsprings so that the world at large will know that the living child is your own'
The suggestion appealed very much to the seth's wife, and she started looking into the future with great keenness.