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How Dhanamitra gained respect for knowledge 121
How Dhanamitra gained respect for knowledge, continued
'Just as the youngest wife obtained increase of her rice, and superiority over all her rivals, so, O prince, must the pentad of vows, by fitting conduct, be brought to increase!' Vijaya remained with the Guru, and engaged in study. After further instruction, the Guru installed him in his own position as teacher, went to the mountain of Sammeta, and there entered nirvana. Vijaya obtained high distinction as a teacher, but grew tired of his profession, which merely dried up his throat. The elders encouraged him, but he insisted that ascetic practice, even without learning, constituted a Pandit. He died unconfessed, and went to the Saudharma heaven; fell thence; and was reborn in Padmapura as Dhanaçarman, the son of a merchant named Dhana (413). His father had him instructed, but, because he had sinfully despised knowledge in a previous birth, nothing stuck to him. The father, in distress, tried many devices to correct this, but nothing succeeded. One day he went with his son to a Sage to ask why his son was stupid. The Sage explained his son's plight, as due to contempt of knowledge in a previous birth. When Dhanaçarman heard this, he remembered his former existence, and, on the advice of the Sage, started to get learning by every effort. Again he died; was reborn as a god in Saudharma; fell from that estate; and returned to earth as Dhanamitra. Once more he could retain no knowledge. However, as result of an unworldly life, he recollected his former existence, whereupon his aversion to knowledge fell away from him. He took the mendicant's vow. By constantly laboring to impart knowledge he himself obtained the knowledge of a Kevalin; used himself as an example to show the evil
